Tottenham vs Man City: Son Heung-min and Kevin De Bruyne clash over Spurs' new stadium

Kevin De Bruyne may doubt that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will have an impact on the Champions League, but there is no question for Son Heung-min.

Tuesday night’s first leg will be the second official game to be played at the new ground, after Spurs two-year exile at Wembley finally ended last week. There is a hope among Tottenham fans that the new atmosphere will be so powerful it will make a difference on the pitch, as Spurs hope to peg back the reigning Premier League champions.

When De Bruyne was asked about this possibility at Wembley on Saturday evening he shrugged it off with his typical bluntness. “I don’t think there will be any difference,” De Bruyne said. “I don’t care about the stadium. I care about the team we play. Everybody talks about the stadium like it’s something special. Everybody has a stadium. Everybody has supporters.”

But when this was put to Son at his press conference at Spurs’ training ground on Monday afternoon, he saw it differently.

For Son, it was not so much about the stadium itself as about the fact that Spurs were homeless for two years and now they are not. That might be difficult for other teams to understand, but for Spurs it makes a world of difference.

“Of course we take these plus points,” Son said. “Maybe the City players don’t realise because they always play at home, but we’ve nearly two years away from our home stadium. What we done last two years was very positive but we missed home a lot and we can show them tomorrow night the difference between Wembley and our new stadium.”

So Spurs have the opportunity to prove a point on Tuesday night, to show City what it means for them to have a home ground again.

But City are just trying to put all of that out of their heads. The ethos of this City run is that they are only focusing on themselves and their own football, rather than anything else. Not on Liverpool, and not on Spurs’ stadium either. Guardiola does not want his players thinking about anything other than the game.

“It affects if we think about the spectators,” Guardiola said, when asked about the ground. “If we think about what we have to do on the pitch, it doesn't affect. So if you are thinking what is going to happen outside of the pitch, ok, the stadium is what it is.

"But in the Champions League, in all the away games, the supporters support the team more than ever. It's the second time Spurs play at home [in the new ground] so we know exactly what we are going to face. It's in our hands how we have to handle it.”