Tottenham Hotspur take on Manchester City in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final later this evening
The game is the biggest of the season for both clubs so far with neither teams having reached the semi-final stage previously in their respective histories.
In fact, the last time Spurs were involved in the quarter final was back in 2011 under the stewardship of Harry Redknapp.
Spurs took on Real Madrid in the last eight and were thrashed 5-0 on aggregate, thanks in part to Peter Crouch’s early sending off at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Mauricio Pochettino will be hoping Spurs fare much better this time around as this team is much more experienced in the Champions League.
One of the stars of Tottenham’s 10/11 Champions League campaign was midfielder Rafael van der Vaart. The Dutchman took to social media to put out an emotional message ahead of the game.
The 36-year-old, who was part of the Tottenham legends team that took on Inter Forever at the new stadium a couple of weeks ago, said that the club and the new stadium deserves nights like this one.
Check out Van der Vaart’s full message below:
This club and new stadium deserves big nights like tonight. They belong here. In my time @SpursOfficial we managed to get to the QF, but I believe this team can go one step further! Go make us proud boys #COYS pic.twitter.com/D0tliinxim
— Rafael van der Vaart (@rafvdvaart) April 9, 2019