I’m Very Excited About Our Draw Vs Juventus – Mauricio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino will battle Juventus after the Champions League round-of-16 draw, calling it a “massive challenge” against a club he has always wanted to face.

“It’s fantastic because my family came from Italy, from Turin — unbelievable!” he said. “My name Pochettino is from Italy. It will be fantastic to go there for the first time.

“It’s a city and a club I’ve always wanted to play and it’s now fantastic to be going to the city of Turin to play against Juventus.”

Pochettino’s team have already come through a difficult group stage that included Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, and he said the pressure against Juventus would be no different.

“That is the mentality we need to use,” he said. “It’s so important to be competitive and we’ve shown we can do that, we’ve shown we can deal with the pressure of the Champions League. This will be a different game to Real Madrid and it’s so exciting to play Juventus.

“I think it’s great excitement for our club to face one of the biggest clubs in the world. They were twice in the final in the last three years so they’re a real contender for the Champions League. They use their mentality to win and it’s going to be a big test for us.

“It’s a massive challenge for us and you play in the Champions League to play this kind of game. There is a real sense of excitement from our side and we will try our best to make our fans very proud of us — we will give 100 percent to go through.”

“I’m very excited about this draw. I played there for two years and won five titles. I wanted this team,” he said. “I have great memories and I enjoyed my time at the club a lot.

“It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world. I have a lot of friends there. It will be an amazing game. They are a very good team with very, very good players.”