BORUSSIA DORTMUND are clearly a better team than the one which lost twice to Tottenham last season.
Yet Jan Vertonghen expects his patched-up Tottenham team to hold the fort before the big guns of Harry Kane and Dele Alli return for the second leg on March 5.
Danny Rose, suffering with a shin injury, is the latest to join the clubs injury list with Alli (hamstring), Kane (ankle) and Ben Davies (groin) all certain to be missing for this first leg Champions League knockout clash.
Vertonghen, expected to fill in for Rose at left-back, is confident a packed Wembley will inspire Tottenham's players and help ensure there will be everything to play for in three weeks time.
By then, as the Belgian confirmed, both Kane and Alli are expected to return.
Yet Spurs must deliver a clever and mature performance against the Bundesligas top team.
Wembley should feel a world away compared to the flat atmosphere witnessed for the game against Watford, when just 29,000 turned up.
Tottenham only got over 40,000 for the previous two matches against Newcastle and Leicester.
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Asked about Spurs having never won a home knockout match in the Champions League, Vertonghen said: I don't know about the stats but we definitely want to win this game.
We feel so good as a team, so strong. We know a couple of guys will come back after the first leg as well. It's a tough fixture for us but we showed last year we can beat everyone.
For us, Wembley will be very important. It definitely helps when the stadium is full and rocking. I bet we will see that for the game. Its a great fixture for everyone in football and thats why we all became football players. We want to play these games at Wembley, one of the best stadiums in the world and if we can get one of the best crowds in the world, then it will definitely help us to get a result there.
We knew that Dele and Harry were going to miss a couple of weeks with their injuries. We know we have a good squad with players who can fill in in different positions and we left it a bit late in the last four games in the League. But we kept on fighting in the League.
The goal that Harry Winks scored against Fulham gave us the belief to never stop fighting and weve shown that. Normally, we can kill games a bit earlier but when weve left it late weve carried on fighting."
Vertonghen accepts Dortmund will be a tougher prospect compared to the one which saw them suffer 2-1 and 3-1 losses to Spurs last term. It will be fascinating to see the impact Jadon Sancho will have on proceedings.
Vertonghen said: If you compare to last year, they started very well in the league when we faced them in the home game and we beat them at home.
With the away game, they were not doing that well in the League and we were doing very well in the Premier League and Champions League. We were on top of them.
*I was speaking with some of the guys with my national team about Sancho and they are impressed. He came there as a young player with not too many expectations for this season but hes done very well, scored goals and lots of assists so impressed by his development and always exciting to see young player do so well.*
Pochettino was less forthcoming about Sancho and avoided a question when asked whether he tried to sign the player.
Tottenham vs Borussia Dortmund: How can I watch, TV channel, kick-off time, team news ahead of Champions League last 16 tieHe said: I do not talk about that. Rumours. We have seen the quality that he was showing at Manchester City and his national team. I think we were talking in the last few years that he was a massive prospect.
Of course he is showing now in Germany that he can cope with the pressure to play in the Bundesliga or in the Champions League. He is talented.
As for injuries, Pochettino admits the situation could be better.
He said: For this game, it will be impossible for Rose to start from the beginning. We need to assess him to see if he can be on the bench. In the morning, we are going to assess if he can help the team by being on the bench if we need him. But for the starting XI, he is not available.
I think all the players who are not involved like Dele, of course, Harry and Ben Davies, along with Janssen could be back soon.
If we are going to be there competing for the Champions League and the Premier League then we need them all fit of course. I hope, yes, everyone can be fit in the next few weeks.