Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario spoke to reporters at our pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon in the build-up to Thursday night’s huge Europa League clash with AZ Alkmaar (8pm UK).
Here’s what the Italy international had to say ahead of the second leg of our Round of 16 tie...
Vicario on what’s at stake against AZ Alkmaar
“We know exactly what the game means tomorrow night, we are very conscious about that and we just want to win the game. In terms of pressure, every Sunday and Thursday for six months we are dealing with that. It’s about getting in the best mindset and in the best shape to face AZ. It will be a big clash and we are very ready to play this football game.
“We will treat it like a big game of football because we know especially in this competition when you have two legs to face, the game splits in two halves. Maybe we lost the first half in the Netherlands and now we have a big opportunity to overturn the result in our favour tomorrow.”
Vicario on fans’ backing of the team
“They will deliver and then it’s on us what we can show tomorrow. We know exactly what we’re going to face. We will face a good side. They showed this at their place. The best version of Spurs for tomorrow night is togetherness from us on the pitch and the fans in the stands. With this mindset and this mentality we can go through this round.”
Vicario on the responsibility of senior players
“Every day we have responsibility on this group. We try to do our best and we try to give good advice to the youngsters, but it’s about the collective responsibility. Tomorrow, of course, we know the importance of the game is massive and we’re going to do this test all together as a family. It’s so important and everyone has to focus on their game, it’s so important, and as a collective we go through every situation during the game and try to win this game. (It’s) more than talking, the thing that I am most effective at is how you behave, how you show your behaviour to the youngsters. Maybe they are coming into a new team so I think the responsibility is in action, not just in talking. Sometimes you need to talk about something but I think we have a manager that every day is giving us the good words to explain which is the right way to play football, the right way to behave for this football club. I think the most important thing is how you act, how you behave in the dressing room and what you show on the pitch. Also maybe the normal stuff we do in the gym, and try to be very professional and committed to this football club.”
Vicario on self-discovery during his recent rehabilitation from injury
“It’s been a very different perspective of my life that I’ve never faced before, a massive injury like I had. I had to see things in a different perspective, of course, and try to stay strong, especially mentally when my team-mates were able to play and I couldn’t. It’s been a different challenge, a different chapter of my life but I can say I’ve learned a lot in terms of how I had to deal with this kind of stuff… it helped me a lot. I’m very proud now to be back. It’s part of the past but it has been a good process especially for my mind.”
Vicario on Antonin Kinsky’s arrival and Brandon Austin’s debut
“Competition is just about football, every day in trying to push your limits. It’s an important thing, to challenge also yourself and to try to not sit down and say ‘okay I’m safe’. It’s trying to reach your best, which is what we did and also if you want to play high-level football, competition is needed in every position, at every football club in the world. It’s very important. These guys, when they played, they played very well, they tried to help the team in a proper way. I’m very happy for them.”
Vicario on showing “the real Spurs”
“Tomorrow the real Spurs will be judged just about winning because of course if we don’t win we are out of the competition. We know that will be tough for us so we have to embrace this. We know this. The good Spurs tomorrow will be just the winning Spurs. To win, we will need our best performance in terms of how we approach the game, how we are tuned into the game and then of course we have to show our best qualities in terms of playing the football and putting pressure on them, of course because we play at our place and we know we have to do that.”
Vicario on defensive injuries
“I think injuries are part of football. You have to deal with that. In this team whoever plays, he tries to put the right work, the right mentality in the way we play. It doesn’t matter because all the lads are very committed, they try to do things at 100 per cent so yes, of course we don’t want to lose players for injuries but it’s life, setbacks and football. Whoever plays, I’m happy to play with them.
“Around this football club we spoke very, very, very few times about injuries. We didn’t make excuses but the fact is we’ve been through three very, very tough months. Also the manager never complained about that. The players talked and we say this every day among each other, that we never thought about injuries, crisis, injury problems. We tried to do our best but playing every three days, you can sometimes lose something, points or games of football and it’s about how you deal with the setbacks and I think we try to deal with them in the best ways possible. Of course we now have a lot of lads coming back and we know our responsibility, especially the senior players, what they can bring into the game and tomorrow is another opportunity to show it.”
Vicario on Sunday’s draw with AFC Bournemouth
“On Sunday we faced a team that was very, very committed in pressure. It’s the best team in pressuring the opposition behind us. It’s been a very good challenge for us. You can make some mistakes like we did but the result says 2-2, it’s a draw, it’s maybe not what we expected from that game but also going 2-0 down after 66 minutes and then going back to 2-2 showed the real belief this football club has about ourselves, the players and the manager and the mentality we want to go through. Like I said, mistakes are part of football, maybe we put some in the game on Sunday, but in the end we showed we really have this belief for this shirt that we wear every day. It’s important for me a way to start again for the game tomorrow.”