Spurs boss wants Inter motivation to show in West Ham clash

Sunday, February 24, 2013
1:53 PM

Tottenham head coach Andre Villas-Boas now hopes the result in Lyon, which set up a last-16 tie against Inter Milan, will inspire his team to victory at Upton Park.

Spurs put in a poor display in the first half on Thursday night, but regrouped to pepper the Lyon net and finally found the winning goal thanks to Dembele.

The Lilywhitesstarted the season with a worrying tendency to concede late on, but they have reversed that pattern in recent weeks, scoring crucial goals in the dying stages of games against Lyon (twice), Norwich, Manchester United and Newcastle.

“We’ve been having some great, great results,” the 35-year-old said.

“After Europa League games we’ve always been good in the Premier League. I think it puts us in a good position to face West Ham.

“I don’t think it’s a distraction, I think it’s an inspiration and I hope it can be exactly that against West Ham.”

Although Villas-Boas is keen for talk of their glamour tie against Inter not to distract his squad, William Gallas cannot help but think about the meeting with the Italian giants, against whom Spurs played out two memorable games two seasons ago.

“We played a match against Inter at San Siro [in October 2010] which we lost, but it’s a place we like a lot because when we played there against AC Milan [in February 2011],” the Spurs defender said.

“That game took us to the Champions League quarter-finals. We know the pitch and the fans well. We’re happy to be going there and we’ll head out there to get a result.”