Soldado so determined

Roberto Soldado has branded tonight's Europa League round of 32 second leg against FC Dnipro as a cup final – and has spoken of his respect for our fans as we strive to reach the next stage of the competition.

Our Spanish international front man , who bagged a hat-trick in our last European home game against Anji Makhachkala, is looking for improvement on last week’s first leg defeat in Ukraine.

And while he acknowledged the long-haul trip to Dnipropetrovsk didn’t help us last time, he believes home advantage will be just that for us on Thursday, with Dnipro having to make the energy-sapping journey from Ukraine to north London.

“They were definitely the better team when we played them last week, but it’s a final for us now,” the 28-year-old declared. “We have to win, and I think at White Hart Lane we can definitely put them to the sword.

“We’ve got great fans who will be there to support us as always. It’s Dnipro who are travelling this time so that could play a part, but I know our fans will get behind the team again.”

While Roberto would clearly love nothing more than to help us through to the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday, he insisted that we must be patient in our pursuit of the goals required to turn the tie in our favour.

“We’re an attacking side but we’re not going to go out there from the first minute and score freely,” he added.

“We’ve got to wait, get the first goal and then build on that. But we’ll definitely get at them.”