Tottenham prepare to host their first Champions League fixture at their new stadium when Manchester City arrive on Tuesday in the quarter-final first leg.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men got off to the perfect start in their new home after defeating Crystal Palace 2-0 last week but the north London club face a much sterner test when Pep Guardiola’s City arrive on Wednesday night.
The Citizens are still hopeful of completing an unprecedented quadruple after securing their place in the FA Cup final last weekend.
The fixture will be the 157th time the two teams have met, but it’ll be the first in UEFA’s premier competition. The last time Tottenham faced an English side in European competitions was back in 1973, when Liverpool eliminated them in the UEFA Cup semi-final.
Manchester City faced Liverpool last season at this stage of the competition as Jurgen Klopp’s Reds beat City home and away before eventually losing in the final. City have never beaten an English team in European competition in their four previous attempts but will be clear favourites to overcome Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham.
It’s Tottenham second visit to the Champions League quarter-finals after losing 0-5 on aggregate against Real Madrid back in their inaugural 2010/11 campaign. They have lost their last five European quarter-finals, most recently defeated by Swiss side Basel in the Europa League 2012/13 season.
City will take confidence from winning 11 of their last 16 against Spurs including their last three although Pochettino’s men were the first to claim the scalp of a Pep Guardiola City side back in October 2016.
Mauricio Pochettino:
“We are going to be aggressive and try to play and beat them. We are going to play a quarter-final, not a friendly. The big teams and players love to play these games. We need to match every situation with City. It will be 11 players against 11 players and hopefully we can win.”
Pep Guardiola:
“We know what we are going to face and it’s in our heads how we handle it. If we want to progress as a team we have to handle it.”
Team News:
Tottenham:
Out: Eric Dier (groin), Erik Lamela (hamstring)
Doubtful: Serge Aurier (hamstring)
Misses next game if booked: Toby Alderweireld, Erik Lamela, Heung-Min Son
Manchester City:
Out: Claudio Bravo (Achilles), Oleksandr Zinchenko (thigh)
Doubtful: Sergio Agüero (muscular), Fabian Delph (unknown), Benjamin Mendy (knee), Kyle Walker (hamstring)
Misses next game if booked: Sergio Agüero, Nicolás Otamendi