Tottenham approach UEFA Champions League with ‘World Cup-winner mentality’, insists Mauricio Pochettino

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Mauricio Pochettino launched a passionate defence of his Tottenham players ahead of tonight's clash with Borussia Dortmund, insisting they have the mentality of World Cup winners.

Tottenham's mental strength has been questioned again after they took one point from a possible nine last week – losing to Burnley and Chelsea before drawing Saturday's north London derby – to fall away from title contention.

They remain on course for a fourth consecutive top-four finish, however, and take a commanding 3-0 lead into tonight's Champions League last-16 second-leg here in Dortmund.

While he played down Spurs' chances of winning the competition, Pochettino believes his players deserve credit for their resilience, after no new signings in over a year and another season away from home.

"This season, with all the circumstances [problems], nobody believed in us," the Argentine said. "The plan was to play in our new stadium in September against Liverpool. After that, we needed to move and find dates to play at Wembley, which was booked. All these situations and circumstances affected the team but we have warriors and we have players that, for me, are heroes in the way they fight. We're only here because of that.

"Our mentality is a Champions League mentality, a World Cup-winner mentality! Maybe need to improve more to win big things but in the last five years the improvement is massive. Massive.

"This group of players are very ambitious, the club is ambitious," Pochettino added. "One thing is what we can do and another is what we did in the past. If we cannot sign [players] in the last two windows it doesn’t mean that we are not ambitious and we cannot beat Dortmund tonight or try to win against Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City or Man United. We are so ambitious. We set our goals very high."

"That is why we’re here in a very good position, good position in the Premier League and Champions League, and in the EFL Cup semi-finals. In the FA Cup, we arrived in a moment when the team struggled a bit. But we set goals very, very high and we'll see what happens."

Spurs are favourites to reach a first Champions League quarter-final since 2011 after goals from Heung-min Son, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente in the win over the Bundesliga leaders at Wembley three weeks ago.

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Dortmund | 13/02/2019

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But an early goal for Dortmund tonight would completely change the complexion of the tie and Pochettino will be aware that his side has been two goals down inside 30 minutes in the Champions League in each of the last three seasons – against AS Monaco two years ago, Juventus last season and Barcelona in October. The manager warned his players to forget the first-leg and aim to win at the infamous Signal Iduna Park.

"The belief, of course, is that we can beat any team but we need to show it tonight – be professional, be aggressive, try to forget the first leg and be focused on this game and try to be better than Borussia Dortmund," he said. "You can beat any team if you are focused. If not, we can lose against Burnley and then Burnley after us lose against Newcastle and [Crystal] Palace. That is how football is. The most important thing is the approach for tonight: be focused, concentrate and give your best.

"Don't think that we have a gap because we got a good result in the first-leg. Don’t think it’s going to be easy. If we think like that, it’s going to be a massive problem. We need to forget the first leg and try to beat Dortmund here again. That must be our approach."

Eric Dier could return to the bench, having barely played since January due to illness, while Harry Winks is expected to pass a fitness test after missing the Arsenal game with a minor hip problem. Serge Aurier, Ben Davies and Juan Foyth are expected to be recalled but Kieran Trippier has been left in London with Dele Alli

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