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Here's every single word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said ahead of the Champions League last 16 clash with Atletico Madrid
Igor Tudor was in a positive mood as he spoke to the media ahead of Tottenham's Champions League last 16 second leg clash against Atletico Madrid.
Spurs must fight back from a 5-2 deficit from the first leg in Madrid even though they will have one eye on Sunday's big Premier League match against Nottingham Forest. The north London side go into the European game with some wind finally in their sails following their battling display to grab a point at Liverpool.
Tudor was asked for the latest injury news with some returning faces in training but also some others set to miss the game against Diego Simeone's side. Conor Gallagher, who suffers from asthma, has been struggling since picking up a virus and the Croatian gave the latest news on his situation.
Our Spurs reporter Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Tudor and here's the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
Is your target to do all you can do to qualify tomorrow night or play well and build confidence ahead of such a big game on Sunday?
I think both things. It's a game that we should play to pass. The main goal is to be focused on this game, even knowing our first thing is to stay in the league. But tomorrow is let's say a big challenge after everything that happened in that [first leg] game to show that we can do good things against them, that they are not better than us. Champions League game, all the glory.
Atletico are a very good team, but have lost 3-0 to Barcelona and 3-0 to Rayo Vallecano over the last month, does that give you and the team hope?
Yeah, difficult but not impossible. We need to stay in the game as much as possible and the game can be long so focus on our strengths, our things we can have tomorrow and everything still to play. So, believe we can do it. That’s the most important thing from the start.
Will Udogie, Bergvall, Palhinha and Romero be available to play tomorrow?
Joao no. Destiny and Lucas will be on the bench tomorrow. One part of the game, not too much because they just started to train with us but it is good to see them.
Romero?
Yeah he is there. You saw him in training today? He can play. Joao no. He is doing worse so he will be for the next game but Romero is in.
With Conor Gallagher, it felt like he was back in training, travelling to Liverpool, but out again. What's the latest with him?
We see today what we can do because he has, as you know, probably asthma problems. He has some virus to make some not nice things so we are going to see tomorrow if he is able to go on the bench.
He's struggling to breathe?
Nothing like a danger but still he is not able to play.
Do you feel like Sunday was a weight lifted off your shoulders, getting a positive result, and positivity from the fans towards you all?
Of course. It's important, when you make one good performance like we did, it gives courage to everyone. To confirm the goodwill, to start to change things.
We started in the training, but we didn't see in the games, because of circumstances that happened last game. So it was a little bit frustrating, because as I said before, the players really care, they want to do. As I said, we speak a lot about the moment, so when it's a moment so difficult, it's not easy to start to move the things.
So this is, I believe, one good moment that happened last game. As I said before, we need to be honest with the things you can give in the pitch, and then the football will give you back. So this happened, and I'm happy for the players, for everyone. Now we need to continue in that direction.
Were you going to play a back three at Liverpool before you lost Gallagher?
I don’t speak about these things before the game and after the game there’s no reason to speak about these things.
Did you see enough on Sunday that gives you confidence Tottenham can stay up?
I am very confident.
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