Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas admitted that Spurs had "superior players", but felt it would be a "tough game" against Swiss side FC Basel in their UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg Tottenham Hotspur have already accounted for French side Lyon and Italian outfit Inter Milan in the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League.
The first leg takes place at White Hart Lane in London, England later this week. Ahead of the match Spurs prepared at their training ground in Enfield. Andre Villas-Boas was confident his team could progress to the final four of the competition and cited having "superior players", however he highlighted Basel's recent European pedigree which saw them beat Manchester United 2-1 in the UEFA Champions League group stage last season, which knocked Alex Ferguson's side out in the process.
Basel also beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in their Round of 16 first leg last season, before being eliminated after a comprehensive 7-0 defeat in the Allianz Arena.
In this season's Europa League knockout stages they have overcome Ukrainian side Dnipro and Russian team Zenit St. Petersburg.
"Their recent European experience makes them, you know, also one of the favourites (for the Europa League). They put out Zenit, which was a very, very strong team and we expect a tough game," Villas-Boas said.
Tottenham are currently third in the English Premier League. A top-four finish would give them a place in the Champions League.
Villas-Boas, who won the Europa League with FC Porto in 2011, said winning a trophy this season would be "tremendously important" but stressed the importance of reaching Europe's elite competition next year.
"We want to focus on trying to win the Europa League. but we understand that the fans and the clubs expectations is for us to try to reach the Champions League qualification this year." he said.
Zinedine Zidane was the latest person to praise the performances of Gareth Bale this season, the Welsh international scored one goal and set up another in Tottenham's 2-1 win at Swansea last Saturday.
Zidane, the former France, Real Madrid and Juventus playmaker, said that Bale this year was "the player who's impressed me most" and described him as "unique".
Despite the latest compliments for his winger, Villas-Boas denied that he was getting ready to receive bids in the summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment