Tottenham Hotspur are just seven days away from the biggest match in the club’s recent history, as they take on Liverpool in the Champions League final.
After coming from 3-0 down on aggregate in just 45 minutes against Ajax, thanks to a Lucas Moura hat-trick, Spurs booked their place in Madrid for June 1.
The furthest the Lilywhites had ever reached before this season was the quarter-finals back in 2011 under Harry Redknapp, when they lost to Real Madrid.
However, this season, Tottenham have managed to beat PSV, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Man City, and Ajax to reach the prestigious Champions League final.
Tottenham have not won a trophy in well over a decade now, with the last piece of silverware coming in 2008 in the form of a Carling Cup.
Despite this, Pochettino claims that he does not want his players to enjoy the final, but head to Madrid with the mentality of winning the trophy.
Poch said (talkSPORT): “It’s going to be completely different. I think it’s not a reference, the games we played in the Premier League.
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“By the way I think in the last game we played at Anfield [on March 31] we deserved much more [than a 2-1 defeat].
“The action, one-v-one, the keeper against Moussa Sissoko in the last minute at 1-1 or Dele Alli, amazing, and at the end we concede in an accident.
“I think it was more a game for us than for them to make us believe that we can beat them.
“It’s a final. A final is about the approach, the mentality, how you prepare and arrive the conditions that you arrive.
“The most important is that we’re going to be there thinking we can win.
“It’s not to play or to compete or to enjoy, in our minds from the day we finished the Premier League against Everton we started to build our mentality.
“Our mentality is to go there and win the final. We’ll see what happens.
“In front is going to be Liverpool, a very good team, but our fate and belief is going to be there and we’re going to fight to try and win.”
Spurs Web Opinion:
I agree with Pochettino, Spurs should go there with clear heads and the aim of winning the competition. The time for enjoyment and celebration can come later if they lift the trophy. I want to see eleven Tottenham heads 100% focused on the task in hand, not thinking about the occasion, the silverware, or anything that could distract them.
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