Brad confident for Dnipro return leg

Brad Friedel echoed Tim Sherwood's views and is convinced we can turn around our 1-0 deficit against Dnipro in next week’s second leg at White Hart Lane.

Back in action for the first time since our final group match against Anji in December, Brad was outstanding as we suffered the narrow loss at the Dnipro Arena.

It was an open, entertaining encounter - Brad likened the second half to a basketball match as play switched end-to-end.

The Ukraine team took the advantage in the tie with a late penalty as Yevhen Konoplyanka slotted home from 12 yards after Jan Vertonghen was penalised for a trip on Matheus.

We carved out plenty of chances as well and the feeling from the players was certainly one of confidence for the second leg at the Lane on Thursday (February 27).

"I said to Daws about 10 minutes into the second half that it was like a basketball match and we needed to settle it down if we could,” reflected Brad.

“I suppose it was entertaining for the neutral but a little too open for our liking.

“I think we would have gone on to win the game if we’d scored the first goal, we had chances at 0-0 but 1-0 is not devastating and we’ll hopefully be able to turn it around at home.”

Brad told us beforehand that Dnipro would be a threat. “They are dangerous,” he added. “They set up to hit us on the counter and did that effectively.

“Hopefully our quality will prevail at White Hart Lane. We’ll be confident back at home.”