Toby Alderweireld still finds it difficult to talk about the 2014
Champions League final. However the defender hopes to use lessons from
Atletico Madrid's run to Lisbon to inspire Tottenham in this year's
competition.
Atleti's hopes of a remarkable league and cup double were ended by
city rivals Real Madrid at the Estadio da Luz, where Diego Simeone's
side led 1-0 until the 94th minute, before slipping to a 4-1 defeat
after extra-time.
Alderweireld came off the bench in the 83rd-minute, with Atleti ahead
through Diego Godin's goal, and the evening remains a tough memory for
the 27-year-old.
"Of course it [still] hurts. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to
win the Champions League," said Alderweireld ahead of Tottenham's second
group match at CSKA Moscow on Tuesday.
"But at the end, you look back at the whole season, you don't only
look back at the Champions League final. We won the league, we played
the Champions League final -- it's something you can be proud of. I've
tried to look at it that way and not only the negatives. But of course
it hurts to talk about it."
One of the takeaways for Alderweireld is his belief that quality
players can beat the odds with an attitude of ruthless
single-mindedness, and the Belgian sees that at Tottenham.
"Every team can win the Champions League if you put your mind on it.
If you have a good squad and the hunger is there to win something, you
can do it," he continued.
"At Atletico, we had the big teams like Barca, Real, Bayern -- they
were always the favourites. But at Atletico, if you are a really good
group -- and, of course, we had quality, too -- you can win it. That's
the thing that's stayed with me. If you are a good team and a good squad
and your mind is thinking to win, to win, then you have a chance.
That's the thing that I have learned the most.
"Look, we want to do everything to win [in Moscow], to get three
points. That's the way we go into every game -- to win. We know that
there is a little bit more pressure because we lost the first home game
but we have to have confidence in our own game and try to give
everything on the pitch.
"Nobody is scared to play in Moscow. And to play our own game. I'm
very confident. We have to go through. We have to be confident in our
game, confident in our quality and confident that we can get the result
against any team. So we don't have to look too far into the future, just
look game-by-game and try to go to the next round."
Just as at Atleti, Alderweireld is working under an Argentinian coach
who demands his players leave nothing on the pitch, and he is in no
doubt that Simeone and Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino -- former
international teammates -- share one defining quality.
"They are different kind of styles but they are both winners. They
want to win everything, they want to win every game," he said.
If Spurs are to win in Moscow, Alderweireld will be important. The
Belgian scored in the 2-1 defeat to AS Monaco at Wembley a fortnight ago
but his quality and experience at the back will matter against CSKA --
particularly with midfield pair Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele missing.
Since moving to England with Southampton in Sept. 2014, four months
after Lisbon, Alderweireld has impressed with both his technical quality
and uncompromising defending -- a perfect blend he credits to two of
his former clubs.
"At Ajax, I got an education in how to play the ball, how to be
confident on the ball, your technique, and then of course you go to a
big league like Spain and you have to learn to defend -- the details,
the ruthlessness. Be clinical in front of your own goal. Win every duel,
every battle and be clever. And the small things. That's something I
learned so much and defensively, I grew there so much. So I have the two
best things -- I learned to play football at Ajax, to be confident on
the ball. And then I really learned to defend at Atletico. So that has
made me the defender I am today," he explained.
"It's good as well to have the thing from Ajax, to be confident on
the ball, especially given how we want to play at Tottenham. We want to
play from the back. We have to get the ball and we have to defend,
sometimes, 30 or 40 yards back so it's important that you know how to
defend and be confident in your own skills.
"At Ajax, it was nice to have the ball, make goals but you have to
see the other side, as well. In the end, defenders are there not to
concede goals."
Key to his success at Tottenham has been a centre-back partnership
with his former Ajax, and current Belgium, teammate Jan Vertonghen. The
pair have started 35 of the 44 league matches since Alderweireld signed,
helping Tottenham to the best defence in the Premier League last season
-- before their anomalous 5-1 defeat at Newcastle on the final day.
Their last appearance in Russia ended in Ajax's 3-0 defeat to Spartak
Moscow in the 2010-11 Europa League last 16 -- a match Christian
Eriksen also played in.
"We don't need a lot of words on the pitch," Alderweireld said of
Vertonghen. "We know how the other one works. We have a little bit of an
instinctive understanding.
"It's difficult for me to explain, but in Russia, it's always
hostile, especially Champions League games, when other teams from Europe
are coming, English teams, as well. We only have to focus on our game
on the pitch and the rest is not in our hands."
