POCHETTINO FACES DEFINING MOMENT
LONDON Mauricio Pochettino faces a defining moment in his Tottenham reign as the indemand Argentine tries to keep his bid for a first major prize alive against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
Pochettino has taken to defending his failure to win silverware in almost five years at Tottenham by insisting he values qualification for Europe’s elite club competition more highly than success in the domestic cups.
But for all of Pochettino’s protestations that reaching the Champions League is his primary goal, that claim rings a little hollow when they never make it to the business end of the tournament.
Tottenham have never been past the last 16 of either the Champions League or the Europa League since Pochettino arrived from Southampton in May 2014.
Now Bundesliga leaders Dortmund, who visit Wembley for the Champions League last-16 first leg on Wednesday, stand between Pochettino and his first European quarterfinal. Derided as serial underachievers when they struggled to break into the Premier League’s top four, Pochettino has made Tottenham into Champions League mainstays capable of ruffling the feathers of Europe’s aristocracy. “We feel so proud and with all the circumstances the team is doing fantastically, the performance of the squad is unbelievable,” Pochettino said.