Micky van de Ven says Tottenham will have no fear in Europa League final
Van de Ven and Cristian Romero produced another colossal display in defence to help Spurs progress to Bilbao.
Micky van de Ven knows only Europa League glory in Bilbao will make Tottenham’s season successful but promises they will show no fear in an all-English final with Manchester United.
A resilient 2-0 win at Bodo/Glimt on Thursday earned Spurs a comprehensive 5-1 aggregate victory in a one-sided last-four tie.
Poor Premier League form has resulted in heightened scrutiny on Ange Postecoglou and widespread criticism, but Tottenham are within touching distance of a first trophy in 17 years following another masterful knock-out display.
Domestic foes Manchester United stand in Spurs’ way after two excellent wins over Athletic Bilbao and boast plenty of recent cup pedigree.
However, Postecoglou’s side have defeated United on three occasions this season and Van de Ven has faith despite injuries to James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall and captain Son Heung-min.
Van de Ven said: “To be in a European final with Tottenham is a big thing for the fans and the club. For me personally, I’m really proud to be part of it.
“Everything can happen in a final but we’re not going there with fear. Of course we know our qualities, we know it’s going to be a difficult game, Man United showed their quality in this European campaign.
“Everybody goes to Bilbao to win a trophy. It has been a tough season and it will only be successful if we win the Europa League and get the trophy.”
It has been a campaign of frustration for Van de Ven, who suffered a hamstring injury in October before multiple setbacks in December and January essentially sidelined him for four months.
“Cuti’s an unbelievable player. You can see that mentality wise, with the ball, without the ball, he knows how it is to play these types of games,” Van de Ven said.
“You can see it in how he is. He shows so much to the rest, he helps the whole team. My partnership with Cuti, we feel each other. He knows what to do, I know what to do. We back each other.
“Of course for me personally it’s a tough season. I didn’t play a lot of games, but now I’m going to play a European final, the first final of my career, for me, unbelievable.
“A season with ups and downs and hopefully I can end up with more positive things.”
Near-misses in recent decades has resulted in questions being asked of the mentality of Tottenham teams and the culture fostered by key boardroom figures at the club, but Van de Ven feels they have shown new streetwise qualities.
“We’re in a European final, one game away from a trophy and I think the mentality we showed was unbelievable.
“We showed a lot of discipline. Also the Frankfurt away game, we kept a clean sheet and won over there.
“Everybody had doubts when we came over here because Bodo/Glimt was doing unbelievable in their home games in Europe, so we knew from the beginning it was going to be a really tough game but we showed discipline, mentality.
“We did what we needed to do, we got a clean sheet and now we go to Bilbao.”
