Jan Vertonghen Anticipating ‘Brilliant’ Europa League Tie Against Fiorentina
Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen is eagerly awaiting the first leg of the club’s Europa League tie with Fiorentina this week, having enjoyed facing the challenging Italian opposition with a former club Ajax.
“Fiorentina have world-class players, it will be a tight tie and quality-wise we are close to each other,” Vertonghen told Spurs’ official website.”It’s a brilliant tie. I’ve played against them before and they haven’t changed,” the Belgian continued.
“Of course, the players have but they are always competing to be in the Champions League,” he added.
“I was injured for the first leg when I was up against them with Ajax in 2009, but I remember Kennedy Bakircioglu scored the goal in a 1-0 win. The second leg was my first game back from injury. We were 1-0 down, Alberto Gilardino – who is now back with Fiorentina on loan – scored but then Leonardo scored for 1-1 and we went through.”
The Spurs star thinks the clash will be one the best of the last 32 and is keen to see how far the club can progress this season.
“This week we’re involved in one of the best ties in this stage of the Europa League between two attacking teams and I’m sure they will be two good games,” he said.
“For us, we’re still where we want to be. It’s a shame we’re out of the FA Cup but we have a final to come in the Capital One Cup, we’re still competing in the Premier League and we’ve got two good games to come against Fiorentina, so we’re in a good way.”
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