Man City vs Tottenham: Mauricio Pochettino ready for the struggle as Spurs bid to take final step

Mauricio Pochettino has only beaten Pep Guardiola away from home once before. It was more than decade ago now, in the Catalan derby, with bottom-of-the-league Espanyol winning 2-1 at the Nou Camp.

Pochettino was merely a month into his first job in management. Barcelona were on their way to winning every major honour available to them. “Fighting King Kong with a teaspoon,” was how one Spanish newspaper had previewed his task.

Tonight should not be quite so tough. Tottenham Hotspur happen to be a considerably better team than that Espanyol and, of course, they do not even need to beat Manchester City in order to reach the Champions League semi-finals.

But still, there was a tacit acceptance among their number on Tuesday that, given they will play away to a Guardiola side, a semi-final place will only be earned through 90 minutes or more of toil and struggle.

“We know we will have to suffer,” said a suitably ashen, somewhat haunted Hugo Lloris. He would mention ‘the s word’ again. Twice, in fact. “We are ready to suffer because tomorrow we are going to suffer.

“Tomorrow is going to be a different game. We have a small advantage but everything can turn very quickly,” Lloris added, telling his team-mates they needed to forget the first-leg result. “We are going to face one of the best teams in Europe.”

Lloris is right. Like the Barcelona of early 2009, Manchester City are the emergent force in European football, chasing an unprecedented clean sweep of major honours in their own country. The only difference this time is that it’s not three trophies Guardiola’s after. It’s four.

“[There] is not another like him,” said Pochettino of his opposite number, after losing count of Guardiola’s number of major honours. “I don’t remember. I am sorry if I am wrong. I think he won 25 or 26? Or 24?” It’s 26, Mauricio. His own total is somewhat easier to recall.

Of course, other numerical comparisons between these clubs also fall in City’s favour. There is the 16-point gap domestically. The £305m difference in transfer spending since Guardiola’s arrival. The one Champions League-era semi-final appearance to the zero.

And yet for all the due respect paid to their opponents, there were also reminders that 1-0 ahead in this tie, with a path to the last four laid out, a world-leading stadium to travel back to, this is surely now Tottenham’s chance to announce themselves in this competition.

For Pochettino, the time of Spurs as pretenders to the throne is over. “After this season, a chapter is going to be closed and we are going to start another chapter and we need to translate to our fans what we want to do, which is challenge for the next few years.

“With our new stadium, we need to be contenders to fight for the Premier League and fighting for the Champions League, and find the tools to try to be there,” he declared. “We are ambitious. We are here not because we love to play football but because we love to compete and we love to win.”

Those unfavourable numerical comparisons with City were not up for discussion. They would not be used as excuses. “You describe a reality and the reality is there,” Pochettino admitted. “But tomorrow, we are going to be on the pitch and try and win the game.”

His message, essentially, was that it will be hard, it will be difficult, but it is time for Tottenham to compete at this level. Time to breathe its rarefied air without suddenly getting a nosebleed.

And Pochettino was leading by example on Tuesday, making it clear he was comfortable in front of the continent's media, even openly enjoying himself.

At one point, when Tottenham’s press officer indicated the next question would be the last, he was overruled. “It’s not too many times you play the quarter-finals,” he joked. “The last time I had same circumstances as this was to play the Catalonia Cup.”

The Catalonia Cup is a minor tournament, organised by the region’s football authority. Pochettino is fond of reminding those who bring up his record of silverware that he won it twice, in 2010 and 2011, beating Guardiola’s Barcelona on both occasions.

Those victories do not count towards their official head-to-head record, which is stacked firmly in Guardiola’s favour. Time, perhaps, to redress the balance. 10 years on from that win at the Nou Camp, Pochettino finds himself up against an old rival again and this time, he has brought a bigger teaspoon.