Hodgson Accepts Eagles Defeat

Roy Hodgson felt his Crystal Palace side played their part on a historic night for Tottenham, who opened their new stadium with a 2-0 win. Son Heung-min wrote his name in the history books with the first goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before Christian Eriksen wrapped up the win for Mauricio Pochettino’s men.

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Palace never looked like springing a surprise victory to rain on Tottenham’s parade but did frustrate their hosts in the first half. Eagles boss Hodgson was impressed by the new surroundings but felt his team were not overawed and could have left with something if they had prevented Son scoring 10 minutes after the interval.

“It is outstanding,” he said. “I can understand why there has been so much hype around it – they must be extremely proud to have created a stadium like this for their team to perform in. “I thought that if we had just kept that a little bit longer to 0-0 or the 1-0 to just 10 or 15 minutes later, then maybe the last 15 or 20 minutes they would have had a little bit more concern for some of our attacking moves.

“It has obviously been a great evening for them but we certainly played our part; no surrender and didn’t make life easy for them.”