U-19 NEXTGEN SERIES BARCELONA v SPURS
Alex Inglethorpe is determined to impose the Tottenham style on Barcelona when we take on the famous Catalans in the NextGen Series on Wednesday night.
The teams meet at Barca’s 15,000-seater Mini Estadi in the shadow of the Nou Camp in the penultimate match of Group One. Kick-off is 4.45pm UK time.
Barca top our group in the Under-19 competition after four games, including a 2-0 win at White Hart Lane back in September. That is our only defeat as we sit in second place.
"You can go there and play with fear, perhaps park the bus, but that’s not the Tottenham style and not the Tottenham way," said coach Alex.
"We have to go and take them on in a football match and we’re capable of that. That’s what we want to do and if we go too far away from our DNA, it might cause us problems. I’d rather go there and try to play our way.
"I’m not sure how many opportunities you get as a professional footballer to play in Barcelona.
"Since I’ve been at the club we’ve played them once in a tournament, a semi-final that we won, once at White Hart Lane in the NextGen and the first team played them in the Wembley Cup in pre-season in 2009.
"In terms of playing away at Barcelona, the club hasn’t done that for a long time. That being the case, it’s an opportunity some of the players might not have again so I don’t want them to have any regrets.
"It’s good we’ve played them recently and although we didn’t win that game, there’s certainly no fear attached to playing them. We know we can play better than we did that night at White Hart Lane, but even in not playing well, we certainly matched them in footballing terms that night."
2012-13 NextGen Series