Pochettino Says Liverpool Favourites For Final
Mauricio Pochettino has said that Liverpool are favourites to win the Champions League final as they “have invested lots of money” and claimed Real Madrid did not let his players sleep at their training ground.
Pochettino made the claims in an interview with the Spanish radio programme El Partidazo de Cope’ ahead of the Champions League final held at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium.
The Spurs boss said: “We are training at Valdebebas, on Thursday morning and then on Friday evening we’ll train on Atletico’s pitch at the Wanda.”
He was then asked if they would sleep at Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground and he said: “No, we’ll sleep in a hotel close by, but we asked to. We asked to train there and sleep there but Florentino (Perez) but he didn’t want to let us.”
The interviewer then joked that Perez did not let Pochettino’s sleep there as the Argentine coach had said no to coaching Real Madrid and the Spurs boss smilingly replied: “Exactly.”
The Argentine said the final would be a “tactical battle” between himself and Jurgen Klopp which could be decided by “emotions”. He said that the team “are optimistic” that Harry Kane will be able to play some role, saying the England captain “is important if he’s 100 percent, the most important thing is the group. He could play from the start, from the bench or help support us if he cannot play”.
He went on to say that Liverpool were the “favourites as they have invested lots of money”, adding: “Liverpool’s plan was to win the Premier League and the Champions League. Tottenham’s plan was to have the best season in our history.”
When asked about coaching Real Madrid in the future, Pochettino said: “I don’t have any objectives. I don’t let myself make long-term dreams. Football puts you where you deserve, as a coach it has brought me where I deserved to be.
“My future doesn’t depend on the result of the final. It’s a five-year project where the objective is was to put Tottenham at the highest level in the world and play in the Champions League one year after the stadium was finished, and we’ve now been playing in it for three years.”
He added: “It’s important to know what the president and owner think for the future. It’s fundamental to know our objective. Our plan wasn’t to win the Champions League even though it sounds tough, our plan was to finish the stadium.”