Tottenham ready to take the fight to Real Madrid in baptism of fire at the Bernabeu
'It is a great opportunity and everyone is excited to play here'
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Your support makes all the difference.This will not quite be the biggest game of Hugo Lloris’ career – he played in the Euro 2016 final last summer – but it will be one of the grandest. To face Real Madrid in the Champions League, winners of this trophy in three of the last four years, is as good at it gets in club football. Nothing in England comes close. For the rest of his younger, less experienced Tottenham team-mates, that will be even truer.
That is what Mauricio Pochettino meant when he said this week that never having played against Madrid in the Bernabeu was like never being baptised, because of the religious aura possessed by the world’s biggest football club.
Lloris has in fact played here before, and triumphed, part of the Lyon team that knocked Real out of the 2010 Champions League in the last-16, costing Manuel Pellegrini his job. But that was a very different time for Real Madrid, their sixth straight last-16 exit. Three European Cups later they are back on top of the game. And for Spurs’ younger players - Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Eric Dier - this will be unlike anything they have ever experienced before. And there is not much that Pochettino – despite his extensive experience here as a player and coach of Espanyol – can do to prepare them for it.
“Real Madrid are the club who are the most favourite in this competition,” Pochettino said at his press conference at the Bernabeu on Monday evening. “So for English players to come here and play here is a dream, because they are so young. That is why I said what I said in Spanish media. When you come here, you are ready to start to feel the reality about football. It is a great opportunity and everyone is excited to play here.”
So even for Lloris, who has seen far more of the top end of elite football than the young players have, there is still a special buzz about walking out in front of 90,000 people on Tuesday evening. It is a reward for Spurs’ improvement under Pochettino in the last three years, a test of how far they have come, and a learning experience to improve even further.
“It’s a big opportunity for all of us to face probably the best club in Europe in the last few years,” Lloris said. “There is always something to prove. The target is to be competitive and enjoy our football, to make a great team performance and to show the face of Tottenham. To play with our concepts, to keep possession, to be aggressive and try to be dominant. Even if it is a hard game. It will be tough, away, in the Bernabeu, against Real Madrid. We have nothing to lose and all to win and we will play with this spirit.”
Some eyebrows were raised, to say the least, when Pochettino predicted after Spurs beat Bournemouth that they would now take the game to Real Madrid. But that message has got through to his players and Lloris said the same last night. “Real Madrid know how to increase the levels because they have the experience in this competition to help them,” Lloris said. “For us, we have to try to solid and believe in ourselves, in our football. It is a collective sport and it is possible to make great achievements.”
Pochettino too hopes that this will be another marker on the journey he has taken Spurs on since 2014. “To compete at this level and to play against the very best team in the world,” Pochettino said, “we have been competitive in the Premier League but need to take that last step. It seems to be quite close, but very difficult to reach, to be competitive with the top teams in Europe. This is a great chance to see our competitive ability, tactically, physically but also mentally. These matches can make us grow as a team.”
The fact that Spurs started their campaign with two wins means they are in a far better position than they were at this stage last season, which helps to take some of the pressure off. They can lose on Tuesday night and still survive. Which is part of why Pochettino has been so bullish in the build-up: his team will try to take the initiative and be proactive here, even against the best team in the world.
Which is why this year’s Champions League campaign is so exciting and so important to a team still in development. They have come so close in the Premier League under Pochettino, but have struggled in Europe, but it already feels as if this season could be different.
“Last season when we saw the draw with Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow, it looked more feasible to fight between the first two, and we were third,” Pochettino said. “But to see the teams we are going to play against this year, to try and enjoy it, with such a young team, lacking experience, we can enjoy. And to develop a way of playing, a structure, and a precedent for the future. We know it’s going to be very difficult, but interesting, to see if we can compete at this level, ,with teams of this quality.”
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