Son Heung-min has suggested Manchester City’s players do not realise the significance of Tottenham Hotspur playing at their new stadium.
The South Korean was responding to comments made by City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, who claimed playing at Spurs’ new home will not be any different to Wembley.
City secured a 1-0 victory over Tottenham at Wembley in the Premier League earlier this season, but Son thinks Pep Guardiola’s men don’t understand the feeling of returning home after a long spell away.
“Of course [the atmosphere can help us]. We’ll take these plus points. Maybe the City players don’t realise because they always play at home,” Son said (via the London Evening Standard).
“We’ve been nearly two years away from our home stadium and what we did in the last two years was very positive. We missed home a lot and we can show them tomorrow night it’s different from Wembley at our new stadium.
“[The Crystal Palace game] was massive, I couldn’t believe it. I had an unbelievable night – I scored, we won, [we kept] a clean sheet. Everything was very positive. It’s important to take this positive energy for tomorrow. When you think positive, positive things happen. There’s nothing wrong at the moment so we should just enjoy, fight and see what happens at the end of the game.
“When you play away you feel pressure as well. We should enjoy the moment. Manchester City is of course a strong side like us. It will be a massive game, we should just enjoy and then we will have fun against big sides. In the unbelievable new stadium, with unbelievable players, we can make the result.”
Spurs have lost their last three meetings with City, including two defeats at Wembley in the Premier League.
But the Londoners will be relatively confident going into Tuesday’s game given City’s difficulties in the latter stages of the Champions League in recent years.
City are currently still in with a chance of winning a historic quadruple, something Tottenham will be eager to prevent from happening over two European legs.
What’s more, Spurs will be looking to go one further than the last time they reached the Champions League quarter-finals by overcoming Guardiola’s impressive side.
