By OkayGoal 
Tottenham Hotspur head coach Martin Ho says that latest opponents Chelsea are still an excellent team despite their recent UEFA Women’s Champions League exit.
Spurs travel to Kingsmeadow to face The Blues in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals on Monday afternoon.
Chelsea were dumped out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League by Arsenal last week. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Spurs boss Ho said that the South West Londoners’ European disappointment doesn’t make them any easier proposition.
“They’ve just come off the back of being knocked out of the Champions League,” Ho said. “I think they performed well in both legs and they were maybe a bit unlucky with the goals conceded and things that didn’t go their way but they’re still a wonderful team. They’ll want to respond in the right way.
“We have to be prepared for moments where we are going to have to suffer then when we have the ball, do we have quality in those moments where we can show what we are capable of? We did that really well in the last game that we played them at home. In the first 45 minutes, I thought we were very good apart from conceding that goal.”
Spurs have enjoyed an excellent season under Ho but he doesn’t believe that his side need a statement win against Chelsea, they must demand it from themselves.
He said “I don’t think we need it but we should want to win those games. I have no doubt that we want to win the game but we don’t go into it thinking ‘we need to do this’ and add more pressure than we need to.
“We play with freedom, play our way, do things how we want to do it and focus on us then perform at a really high level. We know that in these games, we need to lift our performances if we are going to get over the line and there’s no bigger test than Chelsea. We’ve got to make sure we are really at it.”
Spurs have lost their last three games in the Barclays Women’s Super League but Ho has seen a positive reaction from his side in training.
He said “It definitely hurts when you lose. You don’t want to lose and lose in the manner that we have at times but it’s not down to lack of effort, commitment or desire to do things. I think we’ve been on the back end of teams who have been ruthless around the box and we’ve given away the odd chance that we shouldn’t have.
“The team are in good spirits and they’ve trained really well. It’s just about lifting energy. It’s natural for players to be down because they want to win and they’re winners inside but we are in a good space. We are doing everything that we can to keep pushing. Now, we can change the focus completely because we have a quarter-final in a different competition.”
Spurs’ Adobe Women’s FA Cup quarter-final tie at Chelsea kicks-off at 1.30pm on Monday afternoon.
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