Mauricio Pochettino warns Spurs to expect Manchester City reaction to Champions League defeat

Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino's Spurs side won a thrilling Champions League quarter-final earlier this week Credit: getty images

Mauricio Pochettino has warned his Tottenham Hotspur side can expect to feel the full force of Manchester City’s reaction to Wednesday night’s Champions League drama when they return to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Reflecting on his side’s success in denying City a place in the semi-finals of European football’s premier competition, Pochettino rejected the suggestion Pep Guardiola’s side will be seeking revenge. Rather, the Tottenham manager believes City’s focus will now be trained fully on the title race and their efforts to move back to the head of the table, 24 hours before Liverpool travel to face Cardiff City.

Whatever the motivation, the Argentine knows his players can expect a determined response.

“For sure, they are going to move on like us from the Champions League to Premier League,” said Pochettino. “They are going to fight for a massive thing which is to win the Premier League and the principal challenge is to win the Premier League for them and now for us we need to think that we must be in the top four next season and that is our challenge and it is going to be tough.”

Tottenham’s hopes of further denting City’s ambitions this season are not helped by the absence of key players.  Moussa Sissoko became the latest Spurs player to be sidelined when he picked up a groin injury midweek while Harry Winks and Eric Dier are still not ready to return.

“It is made difficult as our circumstances are not the best,” added Pochettino. “They have nearly all players fit and we need to assess players and we will miss some players that are so important and we need to think how we are going to mix. But for sure we need to be sure that we are going to be ready to fight them and challenge them and it will be tough. They are not going to fight the revenge. Of course they will try to win the game as they need the three points like us.”

Pochettino and his players arrived back at the club’s training complex in the early hours of Thursday morning before making a return trip to North West ahead of Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off. The crowded schedule has limited preparation time, but a third meeting between the two teams in less than a fortnight ensures there is likely to be only a limited number of surprises sprung during the game.

“We know each other better now, but there is not much time to train or prepare - it is only through videos, through image,” added the Spurs manager. “Of course it is not too much time to prepare for the game.”

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