Ange sees big chance for Spurs in Europa League last-16

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Ange sees big chance for Spurs in Europa League last-16

Ange Postecoglou believes the Europa League presents Tottenham with a “great opportunity”, especially with the return of Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke for their tie at Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.

Spurs resume their European campaign on Thursday with a last-16 first-leg clash in the Netherlands with huge focus on the competition given the club’s domestic struggles this season.

The long-term absences of van de Ven and Romero have contributed towards a difficult campaign as Tottenham sit 13th in the Premier League and are out of both domestic cup competitions.

While Dejan Kulusevski has become the latest player on the treatment table with a foot issue set to sideline him until April, van de Ven, Romero and Solanke are all in contention to feature in Alkmaar, where Postecoglou will aim to guide his squad a step closer to a first trophy since 2008.

“It is fair to say the boys really understand there is a great opportunity for us,” Postecoglou said.

“We’ve got ourselves in a good position. We’re in the round of 16, we’ve got two tough games against AZ and that’s the first thing to overcome.

“The club hasn’t in recent years done well in this competition, but it’s a major European competition, we’re in the last 16 and for us there’s an opportunity there.

“We’ve got to make sure whatever happens at the end of the game, we’ve still got an opportunity to go back to Tottenham and win the tie.

“We’ve got to make sure we play our football and dictate the tempo of the game to make sure we take a result back to Tottenham.”

Postecoglou refused to be drawn into whether any of the trio could start.

Solanke is available again after a six-week absence following a knee injury while van de Ven has not featured regularly since October after being blighted by hamstring problems, which meant comeback appearances in December and January proved a false dawn.

It is a similar story for Romero, who last played for Tottenham on December 8 against Chelsea before he sustained a fresh groin injury in that match.

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