Harry Kane has admitted he is desperately trying to overcome the pain of June’s Champions League final defeat by Liverpool.
The England striker will lead Tottenham’s front line today at Anfield in the two clubs’ first meeting since Liverpool won the Madrid final 2-0. Spurs are desperate for revenge on Jurgen Klopp’s rampant side, who sit 13 points above the north Londoners.
The odds are stacked firmly against Mauricio Pochettino’s team, who have just 12 points from nine Premier League matches. Despite their poor form, Kane believes the opportunity to end Liverpool’s unbeaten start will provide extra motivation and could begin to numb the pain of defeat in Madrid.
‘We’ve had a bit of a rivalry over the last couple of years because we’ve been competing at the top of the Premier League and in the Champions League,’ said Kane. ‘That’s what you get with two good teams who play at a high level, you want to win, to come out on top. They came out on top in May or June, whenever it was. I’ve tried to forget it to be honest.
‘That’s in the past, we’ve got to concentrate on us now and we’ve got a lot to do to turn our Premier League season around.’
After Spurs’ 5-0 thumping of Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League on Tuesday, Klopp’s Liverpool represent an entirely different challenge. Confidence has taken a hit recently, but Kane expects Spurs to take a positive approach today.
‘We’re expecting a tough game but we’ve been there before and picked up results,’ he added. ‘We’ve just got to concentrate on us and try to perform like we did out there against Red Star. A lot of these games are down to energy, who wants it more and puts in more work and effort.
‘Liverpool are not invincible. Any team can be beaten on any day and we’ve got to try to make sure we do that on Sunday.’
Pochettino is keen for his side to go all out for a result, saying: ‘We are not different from anyone else. We will go there thinking the same, that we can beat them.
‘It’s going to be difficult but our mentality is the same, we will go there thinking we can beat them. At the end, it is 90 minutes of football and we hope we can perform the way we want and be close to win.’