Pochettino declares Tottenham ready for decisive Monaco clash
Published : Dec 24, 2016 10:33 IST
Tottenham know they must take all three points when they travel to Monaco on Tuesday if they are to remain in the Champions League, says Mauricio Pochettino.
Only one victory from their opening four games in Group E has left Tottenham third on four points, two adrift of Bayer Leverkusen and four behind leaders Monaco.
Defeat at the Stade Louis II on matchday five and a victory for Leverkusen over CSKA Moscow would end their hopes of reaching the last 16.
Morale is high within the Spurs squad, though, after they twice came from behind to beat West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday, ending a seven-game winless run in all competitions.
"It's a very decisive game, it is a game we must win now and we all know [that]," Pochettino told Spurs TV.
"The weekend was good, a great victory for us to lift us and recover that feeling of winning games, I think it was very important.
"We know very well that we must win [against Monaco] and take the three points if we want to go to the next round. We need to win."
Whether Harry Kane and Dele Alli will feature depends on their recovery from the West Ham victory, with Pochettino keen to avoid any relapses of the pair's recent injury problems.
"Our selection for tomorrow will depend on whether players like Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Moussa Dembele can play 90 minutes or not," he said.
"We don't want to take risks with them. We've had one day less than Monaco to recover.
"We need to see whether players have fully recovered or not. Some players might need to start on the bench and then come on and make an impact."