AZ Alkmaar vs Tottenham: Postecoglou on Romero, Van de Ven and Solanke

Submitted by daniel on
Picture
Remote Image

Tottenham will be without Dejan Kulusevski when they face AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday (17:45 GMT), but manager Ange Postecoglou could have three first-team players available again after their respective injury problems.

Centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, as well as striker Dominic Solanke, have travelled to the Netherlands and will train with the squad on Wednesday before a decision is made on for how long the trio will feature.

"All three have been training with us and training well," Postecoglou told club media., external "I'll decide whether they get significant match minutes or not, but it's great to have them back.

"They feel good. They've been pretty frustrated not being able to help, but they're in a position where they can.

"In the last few weeks we've had [Guglielmo] Vicario, Destiny [Udogie], Wilson [Odobert] and [James] Maddison all come back and you've seen the impact they've had. I'm sure the guys coming back now will have equally as important an impact."

Spurs are aiming to win a first trophy since 2008 and Postecoglou says his players "really understand there is a great opportunity for us" in the Europa League.

"The club hasn't in recent years done well in this competition, but it's a major European competition, we're in the last 16, there's an opportunity there and we'll see how far we can go in it.

"We've got to make sure, whatever happens at the end of the game, we've still got an opportunity to go back to Tottenham and win the tie."

Source