Monaco’s manager Leonardo Jardim said his players had raised their game for the big stage and suggested the larger Wembley pitch had hindered Spurs.
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Spurs will take on Monaco in front of a sell-out 90,000 crowd at England’s national stadium on Wednesday night, with their move to play at Wembley offering a huge cash boost to the north London club.
“I’m happy to play anywhere in this team”, said Alli.
But although total titles, revenue, transfer spending, vehicle park or any other measure of a “biggest club” won’t measure up favourably for the north London club, they do have a record all their own.
Spurs, who have started their season with two Premier League wins and two draws, will also entertain CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen in their Champions League group. “There is nothing to prove”.
Passion should have been a prerequisite for Tottenham Hotspur on their return to the Champions League after a five-year absence, especially with 85,000 fans packed into Wembley Stadium.
Spurs, quarter-finalists in 2011, have two pitches at their training ground with the same dimensions as Wembley, a stadium they have won just once at since it was re-opened in 2007.
I definitely hope we’ll learn from a night like this. “It’s a different competition, a bigger competition, with different players”.
“When you play for Tottenham, it is hard to accept the way that we conceded the goal today”. “We tried to look at how Tottenham would play, to look at their best aspects and their less good aspects”. Instead, it was the visitors who added to the scoreline through Thomas Lemar, who fired home at the second time of asking (31′). “We’re a good group and we are ambitious and looking forward”. We fight a lot to get into the Champions League, so why not give more? It’s the highest level of club football, so everyone’s very excited, and for it to be at Wembley is going to be very special.
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But in all fairness, the fact that they are playing away from their real home ground, despite being small it is a pitch they are used to playing on week in week out. It was a fantastic opportunity for us. Maybe in the next few days, there will be another player with the same news as Dier.
