‘They’re a winning machine’ – Spurs need perfect game against Manchester City says Vilahamn | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn says that his side must have the perfect game if they are to be successful against the ‘winning machine’ that is Manchester City.

The Lilywhites travel to the Etihad Stadium to face the Barclays Women’s Super League leaders this evening.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Spurs boss Vilahamn said that his side need the perfect game at both ends of the pitch if they are to get a result.

“We play against some really good teams in this league with some really good individual players,” Vilahamn said. “If you don’t defend together against these teams, they can beat you one against one and score goals.

“Collectively, we have learned a lot about how we need to stick together and defend together and tactically, we know how they play because we played against them a few times last season and they have the same coach. They’re a winning machine, they just keep winning and winning.

“We want to play our style in this game but also respect Manchester City. We have to defend well because to have a chance of winning, we need to have a perfect defending game and be clinical with the chances that we get. We can’t expect to dictate but we need to be very good in the transitions, defend well collectively and find the right press trigger to make sure that we can hurt them in some phases of the game.”

Spurs are Manchester City’s first opponents of the season at the Etihad Stadium. Vilahamn is feeling very positive about the occasion.

He said “Looking at the bigger picture, I want women’s football to be played at the big stadiums all of the time in the future. To prepare for that, I want to play as many games as possible [in big stadiums] now.

“When the question came up whether we wanted to play them at the Etihad on a Friday, I was very positive about it because this is another step on the journey of women’s football.

“It’s a great experience to go out there and play at that stadium in-front of a lot of fans. It’s good for the players to have that experience, for the media to have better access as well, so I’m just positive for this because it’s going to be a brilliant Friday evening at a big stadium, against a big team. It also shows respect for us because we are one of the teams that they want to play at the big stadium.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Manchester City kicks-off at 7.30pm this evening.