JAN Vertonghen insists he isn’t out for Champions League revenge against Andy Robertson tonight – but warned the Scotland captain that he faces a very different game.
The 25-year-old Glaswegian’s fairy tale victory in the continent’s biggest game in Madrid two weeks back came at the expense of the Tottenham central defender and his team-mates but Vertonghen clearly has no intention of being on the wrong end of the result for a second time.
“Andy has been unbelievable this season, probably one of the best left-backs in Europe,” said Vertonghen. “He did so well in the Premier League with all his assists and physical contributions.
“It’s not about revenge for me but he played well in the final and so did Liverpool - if you win the Champions League you deserve to win. But it will be a different game tomorrow night I think.”
This match comes at the end of a long season for football superstars like Vertonghen but there is no prospect of him or his Belgium buddies being on holiday mode.
He has trained straight through since the Champions League final on June 1, with the exception of Sunday, when Roberto Martinez gave the whole squad the day off.
So desperate is he to remain involved that he was mildly disparaging of the threat posed by Scotland’s nemeses Kazakhstan in the course of their 3-0 defeat here on Saturday night for not providing him with a sterner test. “After the Champions League final, I was happy to be here and not going straight on holiday,” said Vertonghen. “I needed another game. I would have preferred to be more involved in the game because there were hardly any balls in defence.”
Whether Scotland present him with a more of a personal challenge tonight remains to be seen, but the big defender certainly expects more of a contest than the one he got in an off-colour display from Alex McLeish’s side in a 4-0 Hampden friendly defeat in September.
The task facing Clarke and his men is daunting: Belgium are rated by Fifa as the best team in world football and haven’t lost a competitive match at home for nine years.
“I stayed on training for three weeks while most players of the opposition were on holiday,” said Vertonghen. “So the same way we have worked for the rest of the season, we will be ready to face this team.
“I’m looking forward to 11pm tomorrow evening, when we’ve got the three points,” he added. “Then I’ll be a happy man.
“I didn’t see them play under their new manager [against Cyprus] but I expect a more difficult game than in September in Hampden,” said this veteran of 112 caps. “They have a new coach and it will be a physical battle with direct play.”
“Scotland lost 3-0 there [in Kazakhstan] but it was a difficult surface. Here they will come and play a physically strong game. We have to play as we’re used to playing against the Scottish.”
With Dries Mertens the only doubt with an ankle injury, Belgium have a clean bill of health. The only question will be whether Martinez decides to try out a few different alternatives.
“We always go for the three points. We want something to take to the euros and can try out some other things. Maybe we can improve our concentration and have a few other boys with playing chances in those other games
“I’m not going to tell you what our weaknesses are,” he said. “But we’ve seen it in the past, teams outside of the top 10 or 20 can beat teams who are higher up the table.
“They can beat us but we need to be prepared for that. I think if we do what we did at Hampden, or on Saturday, we should beat them.”
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