Jan Vertonghen Looking Forward to Champions League Final After 'Craziest Season'
Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen says that he is determined to ensure that his side win the Champions League after having what he describes as their 'craziest year'.
Spurs play Liverpool in the Champions League final on Saturday, having had several dramatic moments on their passage to the showpiece event in Madrid.
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Tottenham have been on the brink of elimination on several occasions in the Champions League this season and Vertonghen hopes that his side can have a successful end to what he claims has been one of their most dramatic campaigns.
"It's been the craziest one ever and being at the end of that crazy campaign now is something unbelievable. We all played our parts and hopefully we can hold the trophy at the end of the game," he told The Evening Standard.
"In the group stages, we should not have lost that away game at Inter, we got one point after three games, the Barca away game...there are so many I can't tell them all but it's been crazy."
After dispatching Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund 4-0 on aggregate in the round of 16, Spurs then played fellow Premier League side Manchester City in the quarter-finals.
Tottenham won the first leg 1-0 at home in a cagey encounter where they lost talisman Harry Kane to injury. The second leg was one of the most dramatic encounters of the season, with five goals being scored in the first half hour, Fernando Llorente giving Tottenham what was ultimately the winning goal in dramatic circumstances when the ball appeared to strike his hand and Raheem Sterling having a last-minute winner ruled out due to offside in the build-up.
The north London side overcame Ajax in the semi-finals in even more insane circumstances, with Lucas Moura scoring a hat-trick, including the winner deep into injury time after Tottenham had found themselves 3-0 down on aggregate.
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Vertonghen says that he is looking forward to the final and that he wants to be able to reflect on the game with fondness following the end of his career.
"To be playing in a Champions League final is something to cherish. How many games have we played to get here eventually? Twelve games? In every single one of them, something crazy happened.
"At the end of my career, I'll hopefully look at this and think this was the most beautiful and craziest year of them all.
"I will always be able to say I was part of a Champions League Final but you want to tell a different story to your kids and this is the ideal script."
Tottenham play Liverpool in the Champions League final at 8pm on Saturday at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid.
