Tottenham Hotspur were certainly a surprise package in the Champions League last season in more ways than one as they reached the final in Madrid.
Few would have predicted that Spurs would make it so far at the start of the season, and even fewer would have seen it coming after they gained just one point from nine after three games in the group stages.
However, Spurs managed wins over PSV and Inter Milan, and a draw away to Barcelona to scrape through to the knockout stages, where they dumped Borussia Dortmund, Man City, and Ajax from the competition.
Unfortunately, Spurs lost to Liverpool in the final, but they will be looking to go again when they face off against Olympiacos on Wednesday.
Jan Vertonghen believes that Spurs have the confidence to reach the final again, with teams giving them more respect now, but he wants a better start to the competition than last year.
He said (iNews): “We want to go as far as we did last year. We’ve got a nice group, some good games, nice challenges and teams we haven’t played against yet so, yeah, we’ll go [into the group] for the win.
“[Reaching the final in June] gave us a lot of confidence to go for it again. Obviously we have the same team with some great additions to it, so, yeah, we definitely have the confidence to get there.
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“At one point after nine games [in the Premier League and Champions League], it was a difficult one last year.
“We want to start off well now and we have to win the away games as well. We want to be in a better position.
“We have the respect now and I think teams will treat us differently to a couple of years ago. They will look at us as an outsider [to win the competition].”
Spurs Web Opinion:
We saw Liverpool reach back-to-back finals and win the Champions League at the second time of asking. Why can’t Spurs do the same? The mentality for this side should now be that the sky is the limit!
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