Pedro Porro has warned his Tottenham Hotspur teammates not to underestimate Manchester United in the Europa League final.
The Europa League final between Tottenham and Manchester United takes place in Bilbao on Wednesday night.
Tottenham are 17th in the Premier League table, with United one point and one place better off, but they meet in Spain for a shot at securing a place in the Champions League.
With Ange Postecoglou under pressure to keep his job at Tottenham, Ruben Amorim has been praising the opposing manager ahead of the final. Still, there is no denying that both teams have endured turbulent campaigns.
Both teams enter the final with several injuries, meaning key players will miss the biggest game of the season. They include Lisandro Martinez, Joshua Zirkzee, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski.
Moreover, Amorim is waiting to see whether Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt will pass fitness tests for the game, after sustaining new injuries in the lead-up to the final.
Pedro Porro grateful to Ruben Amorim
Tottenham full-back Pedro Porro has praised Amorim for his human touch after crediting the United head coach’s role in helping his career reach new levels.
Pedro is looking to spoil the night in Bilbao for Amorim and United, but he doesn’t forget the care and attention shown to him at Sporting CP before he signed for Tottenham.
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“He’s a magnificent coach,” Porro said, as quoted by The Mirror. “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.
“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. I’m really grateful to him for that.”
Much like United, Tottenham have been much stronger in Europe, although only the Red Devils can go the entire way unbeaten if they win on Wednesday night. Only three teams in Europa League history have achieved that feat. They include Chelsea (2019), Villarreal (2021) and Eintracht Frankfurt (2022).
Porro added: “The truth is we have very good feelings.
“Ignoring the Premier League, we are feeling good. The job the team has done in Europe has been enormous and I think we feel we’re in a good place. Those feelings have to carry over to the day of the final now.
“We have to forget everything else because we’ve worked very hard to get to this final. It’s very difficult to get to where we are in this Europa League and it’s where we want to be.”
Porro believes Tottenham face a ‘very good’ Man Utd team
United fans will argue that this may be one of the worst teams they’ve had in recent years, but it doesn’t sound like Porro agrees with that.
Tottenham have beaten United on three different occasions this season, but Porro will not be underestimating the Red Devils in Bilbao.
He added: “Well, I don’t think they’ve lost in the Europa League. They’re a very good team, with a very good coach no? In the end they haven’t had the luck in the Premier League, it’s like us isn’t it?
“But we’re two teams that know how to deliver and it’s going to be a very beautiful final. I hope we’re the happy ones at the end.”