Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino didn't want English team in Champions League

Mauricio Pochettino has admitted he would have preferred Tottenham to draw a non-English team in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Spurs were matched up with Manchester City during Friday's draw, the Premier League pair to play over two legs for a place in the semi-finals.

The quarter-final tie will be first time Spurs will play an English team in European competition since losing to Liverpool on away goals in the Uefa Cup semi-finals in 1972-73.

Pochettino has faced Pep Guardiola 14 times during his managerial career, winning just twice and has lost the last three by an aggregate score of 8-2.

"I would prefer to play against a team from outside the Premier League," Pochettino told Mundo Deportivo.

"The draw is what it is. City are a team that has the obligation to win, but not only since the arrival of Pep. With [Roberto] Mancini and [Manuel] Pellegrino also.

"We are going to compete with the incentive of launching our new stadium against them and playing with 62,000 people who are going to transmit a special energy."

Pochettino was in Barcelona at the Mediterranean International Cup, of which he is an ambassador.

The setup of the Champions League draw means Tottenham could face Barcelona in the final, a prospect Pochettino - formerly of rivals Espanyol - would relish.

He added: "I would sign [on] for playing the final against Barca. If there is a favorite team to win the Champions League, it is Barcelona.

"They have excellent, extraordinary footballers, not just Leo Messi who is a genius and the best in the world.

"Leo does things that nobody expects, but what surprises most is his regularity, his consistency. Every three or four days, during the last eleven or twelve years."

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