Spurs find themselves facing a must-win UEFA Europa League clash against AZ Alkmaar at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday, with Ange Postecoglou’s side needing to overturn the 1-0 defeat they suffered in the Netherlands last week.
With the competition now serving as the club’s only chance of lifting silverware this season, Postecoglou dismissed suggestions that there is extra pressure on the squad’s shoulders.
“We were obviously disappointed with our performance in the first leg,” he told reporters in his pre-match press conference, “and I guess the important thing is we didn’t make the tie impossible for us to get back into. It’s still very tight. Obviously they have the goal advantage, but being at home and if we can play with the intensity and tempo we played at the weekend, I think we’ll have the opportunity to progress.”
The Australian highlighted that during last week’s first leg, “we didn’t really play at the intensity that we usually do. It could be a multitude of things but we have analysed that and reviewed that. At the weekend we had our struggles but at the same time I thought we were more like ourselves, particularly in the second half, in terms of playing with a real strong intent with and without the ball.”
“The level is there, it’s not like it’s disappeared. We have just got to make sure we get to that level again tomorrow night,” he stressed, explaining that his squad will “treat it as any other game” despite trailing on aggregate.
“The beauty of our approach I guess is nothing really changes because we try and go out there and win every game and be really dominant in our football and that’s what we’re going to need to do tomorrow night to get the result we want. So from our perspective, being a goal down doesn’t really change anything. We’ll just go out there with a normal mindset that we showed in the games we’ve done well in this year and use that as a way forward.”