The Spurs boss spoke ahead of Tuesday night’s last-16 second leg at Signal Iduna Park against the Bundesliga leaders.
Tottenham Hotspur face a date with destiny on Tuesday night as they face Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League last-16 second leg at the Signal Iduna Park boasting a 3-0 first-leg lead.
The Bundesliga leaders were put to the sword in the first leg at Wembley as Son Heung-min, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente scored three unanswered goals to put them in pole position for the next round.
With only half the tie played, however, Spurs must not let any complacency sink in – after all, there have been three instances when a team has overturned a three-goal deficit or more in a Champions League second leg, and two of these have taken place in the past two years (Champions League website).
Luckily, Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is intent on stamping out any little bit of potential complacency within his ranks, going as far as to say his players need to forget what they’ve done in the first leg, and outlining his game plan.
“We need to play like always we play, trying to win, that is important,” he is quoted by Sky Sports News as saying in his pre-match presser.
“We need to forget the first leg, it’s important to be aggressive, fight from beginning, high tempo, that is going to be the key. We know Borussia Dortmund is a great team, top of the Bundesliga because they deserve to be there.”
Spurs go into the game on the back of a 1-1 draw with North London rivals Arsenal, while Dortmund’s last outing saw them lose 2-1 to Augsburg, courtesy of a brace by Son’s South Korea teammate Ji Dong-won.
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