Former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp believes that they are huge favourites to beat AC Milan over two legs and reach the Champions League quarter-final stage.
Tottenham will play at San Siro tonight in the first leg of their last 16 tie and it is a feeling that Redknapp knows well, given he was leading the London club in 2010-11 when they faced the same opponent at the same stage of the competition.
A Peter Crouch winner saw the Premier League side take a 1-0 advantage back to the capital, where a goalless draw again saw Spurs through to the next round by a one-goal margin, and Redknapp thinks that they will emerge victorious again 11 years on.
He spoke during an interview with the London Evening Standard to recall his memories from that tie and make a prediction ahead of this upcoming two-legged affair.
“I’m sure Tottenham will beat them. I think Tottenham are strong, I really do. I certainly think Tottenham are red hot favourites and quite rightly so to beat AC Milan. Tottenham will have too much for them,” he said.
“I couldn’t see them containing Harry Kane. [Dejan] Kulusevski, Richarlison: they’re full of quality. It’s a good Tottenham team that will be way too good for Milan.”
Redknapp also commented on the two games he saw Chelsea win against Milan in the group stages of the current campaign, in which the Blues won 3-0 at home and 2-0 at San Siro.
“Shocking. I saw the games. I don’t see any way that Tottenham don’t go through. It would be a massive surprise.”
On the games 11 years ago, he added.: “They had some good players. We wanted to keep it tight, which is what we did. With Aaron Lennon’s pace we broke away and Crouchy scored. It was a very good performance. To go there and win 1-0 was the perfect score-line.
“Then they came to White Hart Lane and dominated us. Clarence Seedorf ran the game. He was excellent that night but we defended well and came away with a 0-0 result. We did the job over the two legs.”
The last meeting at San Siro is now famous for the square-up between ex-Milan striker Joe Jordan and then-Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso.
“Joe speaks fluent Italian, having played in Italy,” says Redknapp. “His daughter is actually an English teacher in Milan now. They exchanged a few words in Italian, then it all kicked off. [Gattuso] was picking on the wrong bloke in Joe.
“You look at some of the quality players that played for them in those two games: they were very strong. Look at them now, they’re nowhere near that quality.”
