LONDON, May 10 — Micky van de Ven says Tottenham will show no fear when they face Premier League rivals Manchester United in the Europa League final later this month.
A 2-0 win at Bodo/Glimt on Thursday earned Spurs a comprehensive 5-1 aggregate victory in a one-sided last-four tie while United beat Athletic Bilbao 7-1 on aggregate.
Poor Premier League form has heaped the pressure on Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou but Tottenham are within touching distance of a first trophy in 17 years.
United, who have also had a terrible league season, boast plenty of recent cup pedigree but Postecoglou’s side have defeated them three times during the current campaign.
Van de Ven is confident Tottenham can prevail despite injuries to James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall and captain Son Heung-min.
“Everything can happen in a final but we’re not going there with fear,” said the defender.
“Of course we know our qualities, we know it’s going to be a difficult game, Man United showed their quality in this European campaign.
“Everybody goes to Bilbao to win a trophy. It has been a tough season and it will only be successful if we win the Europa League and get the trophy.”
The Netherlands international has missed a large chunk of the season with injuries.
“Of course for me personally it’s a tough season. I didn’t play a lot of games but now I’m going to play a European final, the first final of my career. For me, unbelievable,” he said.
Van de Ven feels Tottenham,often accused of having a soft underbelly, have shown new streetwise qualities during their run to the final, which takes place on May 21.
“We’re in a European final, one game away from a trophy and I think the mentality we showed was unbelievable,” he said.
“We showed a lot of discipline. Also the Frankfurt away game, we kept a clean sheet and won over there.
“Everybody had doubts when we came over here because Bodo/Glimt was doing unbelievable in their home games in Europe, so we knew from the beginning it was going to be a really tough game but we showed discipline, mentality.
“We did what we needed to do, we got a clean sheet and now we go to Bilbao.” — AFP
