Pedro Porro will certainly not be taking Man United lightly in the Europa League final, with the Tottenham right-back making an admission about his former manager, Ruben Amorim, ahead of the showpiece event in Bilbao.
Ange Postecoglou is proud of his trophy record as the Tottenham head coach looks to keep his record of always winning silverware in his second season intact.
His opposite number is also not short of accolades, with Amorim having won the Portuguese Primeira Liga three times and the Taca da Liga twice during his time in charge of Sporting Lisbon.
Amorim has fired a warning shot at Tottenham ahead of the final, insisting that he knows exactly what to expect from the Lilywhites.
Pedro Porro praises ‘magnificent’ Man United boss Ruben Amorim
Pedro Porro was an integral part of some of those trophy wins at Sporting and knows first-hand how the Portuguese coach prepares his team for cup finals.
The 25-year-old admitted that Amorim has played a vital role in his development on and off the pitch over the last few years, remarking that he will always be grateful to the Man United boss.
When asked about locking horns with Amorim in Bilbao, the Tottenham Hotspur right-back told The Standard: “He’s a magnificent coach. I know him very well. It’s the way he treats the players, he always spoke to me as a person, it’s not just how he treated me from a football perspective.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“The way he works on the pitch is also very good, but in this case, I hope I’m the happy one. When I arrived [at Sporting], it was a little bit difficult for me, but like everything in football, sometimes it’s hard at first, right?
“Things in life don’t always go the way you want them to, but when I got there, the truth is I had a lot of help from him, and at that moment my football exploded. To be honest, I’m really grateful to him for that.”
Winning the Europa League with Tottenham would be a childhood dream admits Pedro Porro
The Spaniard is aware of how big a game the Europa League final is for Tottenham, given that the club have gone without a trophy for 17 years.
Porro admitted that from a personal standpoint, winning a European trophy would be the fulfilment of a childhood dream and the culmination of all the hard work he has put in over the years to get to where he is.
When asked what lifting the trophy in Bilbao would mean, the defender said: “It would be very important. It would be a dream because, as we already know, when I arrived here, we knew it had been a long time since we had won a trophy here. So it would be very, very important for us.
“For me personally, it would be a story of faith, something I dreamt of ever since I was little. It’s my first European final, and everyone in the world would have motivation for that. That is everyone’s dream when they are little.