Mauricio Pochettino Admits Tottenham's Champions League Quarter-Final Is Biggest Game of His Career

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has branded his side's Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City as the biggest game of his coaching career. 

Spurs begin a run of fixtures that sees them face City three times in the space of the next ten days, with both legs of their quarter-final taking place before their Premier League meeting on 20 April. It's a period that could see the north London club seriously hinder Pep Guardiola's aspirations of securing an unprecedented quadruple.  

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The first of the trilogy takes place at Tottenham's new stadium, with Pochettino under no illusions regarding the magnitude of the game in respect to his coaching career to date. 

Asked if his first Champions League quarter-final was the biggest game of his life, as quoted by The Mirror, he replied: "Yes – as a coach, yes.

"For us it's a bonus to be here, to have the possibility to play in the quarter-finals with all the circumstances, and the objective is to be in the semi-final."

Pochettino will be hoping to end a recent poor run against City that has seen Tottenham fail to win any of their previous four meetings against their upcoming opponents (D1 L3), while victory over Guardiola's side at the club's new stadium would be only his third win in 15 head-to-head meetings with the Spaniard. 

With that in mind, Pochettino has called for his side to be 'aggressive' in their approach - one that gave Liverpool success against Manchester City at this stage of the competition last season - and to make the most of what will likely be a raucous home support in the first leg.

He added: "City are a very, very good team and it's going to be tough, the games against him... sorry, them. We need to start being tough and aggressive, put a high tempo on the game and hope the atmosphere will be tough for our opponents."