Pochettino hints it’s nearly impossible to prepare for Dortmund

Tottenham will welcome Leicester City to Wembley tomorrow afternoon, just three days before they take on Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday night in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16.

The German giants play their Bundesliga game against Hoffenheim this afternoon which sees them have an extra day of rest ahead of the European tie, compared to Spurs.

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has revealed his disappointment by the scheduling as it gives Spurs less recovery time than their opponents.

The Argentine insisted that the Premier League like the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A should try and schedule fixtures in such a way so as to give their clubs the best chance to progress further in European competitions.

The 46-year-old said that the scheduling of the Leicester game is particularly difficult to understand since both Spurs as well as the Foxes had a clear week and could have easily played on Saturday.

With the game having been selected for live television coverage by Sky Sports, it appears that there was no option to move the fixture.

Speaking during the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Leicester, Pochettino told Football.London, “I am not in charge. I think when the TV decide the game, I think you cannot move.

“It’s not frustration, I think in another country, like Germany, Spain or France, clubs that are involved in Europe always get helped. The league will help you to try and arrive in the best condition.

“You can’t move the fixture because you play Wednesday or Thursday cups or involved in different competitions, okay you can understand, but when you have a clean week and can play Friday or Saturday, to play Sunday it’s so difficult to understand.

“After is Monday, Tuesday and after you play you need a minimum 72 hours, if you start the recovery in a very good way to compete again but we will have less and how you prepare in these 48 hours with the players that were involved Sunday, it’s nearly impossible.

“I think it’s not fair when you compete like this, but when we describe the situation we will try to win and perform in the best way but again sometimes the people that go and express their opinion, they need to have all the info because sometimes when the decision is one or another, it’s because sometimes we need to manage many things that people need to be aware of and only I want to tell you it’s a bit weird that situation.”

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