Jose Mourinho has claimed that tonight’s Champions League clash against Bayern Munich is ‘important’ despite there being no stakes on the line.
Speaking to the club’s official website ahead of Spurs’ fixture against the reigning Bundesliga champions, the former Manchester United man said to the press that although Tottenham will finish second in their Champions League group no matter what happens at the Allianz Arena, tonight’s fixture against Bayern is still important for the club.
Mourinho also confirmed to the press via BBC Sport that several first-team players will remain in north London instead of making the trip to Bavaria, with Harry Kane, Dele Alli and defenders Jan Vertonghen and Serge Aurier all excluded from the travelling squad.
Tottenham’s 4-2 win against Olympiakos last month confirmed their progression to the Champions League Round of 16, but Bayern Munich beating Red Star Belgrade on matchday five also meant that Spurs will finish the group in second place, but that hasn’t stopped Mourinho from signalling the importance of tonight’s seemingly dead rubber game.
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The Portuguese manager said: “It’s an important game because we represent Tottenham Hotspur and that doesn’t matter the game, the objectives, the ambitions, the competition. Tottenham is Tottenham and that gives us always a sense of responsibility,” with Mourinho later adding: “We need to play for Tottenham and that is responsibility but at the same time there are other things.”
Although Mourinho’s words ring some level of truth, it seems slightly fictitious to call tonight’s game against Bayern an ‘important’ one with Tottenham unable to finish higher than second in their group as well as the Spurs boss leaving plenty of first-team players at home for the game.
The encounter at the Allianz Arena will be a chance for Mourinho to experiment more with his Tottenham side, but it will be far from an important game in the overall scheme of things for Spurs.