Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli has defended Eric Dier after his team-mate was substituted after just 28 minutes against Olympiacos, stating he could have been the one hauled off.
Dier was replaced by Christian Eriksen inside the half-hour mark during the Champions League group-stage clash with the Greek side, who stormed to a 2-0 lead after just 20 minutes.
After the poor start, Jose Mourinho showed he was not afraid to make big tactical changes and replaced Dier - although Alli believes it could have been any member of the starting line-up.
As he explained after the match, he believes that the entire performance from the team was sub-par and added that he felt his showing in the opening exchanges was poor.
"We were losing and it's the manager's decision to bring on probably a more of a forward-thinking midfielder but to be honest, it could have been anyone that came off in the first 20, especially myself because I thought I was awful," he told BT Sport.
"It's one of them, it's a team game and the manager felt a change needed to be made. Thankfully it worked in our favour."
Alli went on to score just before the interval to give Spurs a platform to build upon in the second period, which they did with three goals to win 4-2 and seal their spot in the knockout stages, and he admitted his goal was a turning point.
"We didn't start anywhere near good enough and we said at half-time we couldn't perform any worse than we did in the first half, so it was good to take into the second half knowing we could only get better.
"It's one of them where it was a bit lucky that the ball came to me but I’m happy to get the goal but more importantly we won."
