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Mission impossible for Tottenham against Real Madrid

London: Harry Redknapp insists Tottenham will go down fighting even though it faces a mission impossible against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinal second leg on Wednesday.

Underdog

Redknapp concedes his side is underdog after losing the first leg 4-0 in Spain last week, but the Spurs boss will accept nothing less than total commitment in the return at White Hart Lane. The chances of an astute tactician like Real coach Jose Mourinho allowing his team to surrender such a substantial lead is extremely slender, yet Tottenham can draw some belief from its exploits earlier in the competition.

It came back from 3-0 down to beat Young Boys Berne in the qualifying round and almost drew with Inter Milan in the San Siro despite falling 4-0 behind with 10 men and Redknapp will remind his players of that before kick-off.

If this is the end of Tottenham's first Champions League campaign since 1962 Redknapp is adamant there will be no regrets that it has fallen short of the Wembley final.

Memorable wins over Inter Milan and AC Milan were the undoubted high points, but remaining in the competition for at least a round longer than Arsenal was also a sweet sensation for a club which had spent years in the shadow of its north London rival.

Lennon is fit

While Redknapp will be without Peter Crouch, suspended after his reckless and costly red card in the first leg, the other perceived villain of the first leg — Spurs winger Aaron Lennon — is fit to feature after recovering from the illness that forced him to pull out just minutes before kick-off at the Bernabeu.

Tottenham fans will also be under the microscope after Real's former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who scored twice in the first leg, accused them of chanting racist abuse at him during the Bernabeu clash.

Even though the match is all but over and Real faces a must-win match against Barcelona this weekend, Mourinho is unlikely to risk resting his key players against Spurs as he looks to take the club into the last four for the first time since 2003.

Mourinho, who has won the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan, knows his employers at nine-time winner Real regard the competition as the only true judge of a manager and the Portuguese coach could do with delivering the club's first triumph since 2002 as his first season in Spain has been a stormy affair. — AFP

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