Wed 21 January 2015, 13:45
Tottenham HotspurDesire is key for Mauricio Pochettino ahead of our Capital One Cup semi-final over two legs against Sheffield United.
The Blades - who reached the semi-final of the FA Cup last season - have added more Premier League scalps to their recent collection in cup action this time around, beating Southampton in the quarter-final of this competition before a convincing win against QPR at Loftus Road in the FA Cup.
The first leg is at the Lane tonight (January 21, 7.45pm) before the return at Bramall Lane on Wednesday week, January 28.
“Sheffield United are a very good team and they showed their quality against Southampton and QPR in the FA Cup,” said Mauricio.
“The dream is the same for all of us, to get to a final. But we need to be focused over the two games against Sheffield United.
“We need to show respect for them and after that, we need to be better than them.
“I know the history of Tottenham in the cups, we respect every competition and we need to go out and try to win every competition we play.”
We remain in contention in all three cup competitions - League Cup, FA Cup, Europa League - and sit sixth in the Premier League and Mauricio feels it’s important not to look too far ahead.
“We need to go step by step, game by game,” he said. “We know this semi-final is difficult, a tough game.
“The level of the team isn’t important - Premier League, Championship or League One - when you play over two games, everything is possible.
“We need to show more desire than our opponent and this is the key.”
Match Centre - Mauricio, Kyle Walker, the story so far on video plus Etienne Capoue, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, team news...
