Tottenham Hotspur are set to host Barcelona at Wembley tomorrow evening.
Spurs are set to host Barca at Wembley, when they will come up against arguably the finest player of all time.
It will be a difficult test for Tottenham’s defence, who will be without Jan Vertonghen for the fixture.
But Pochettino insists that his plan over dealing with Messi is actually very simple.
The Argentine boss said: “It’s very clear, very simple, we need to be near him when he gets the ball.
“If we leave him space he will get away from his marker. What we need is to have players helping each other. We need to demand sacrifice and they will expend a lot of energy.”
Spurs go into their game with Barcelona under significant pressure to get the three points.
Tottenham lost their first Champions League match against Inter Milan, which leaves them in a difficult position.
If Spurs could pull off an upset and defeat the Spanish giants then their qualification chances would be massively boosted, but a defeat would leave Pochettino’s side facing an uphill task to make the knockout stages.
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