Igor Tudor has insisted it is not "impossible" for Tottenham to overturn a three-goal deficit against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Tudor's month-long reign hit crisis point following a shambolic start in a 5-2 loss in Madrid in last Tuesday’s last-16 first leg.
It put the Spurs interim head coach on the brink, but a battling 1-1 draw away to Liverpool on Sunday has provided renewed hope, along with the return of Destiny Udogie, captain Cristian Romero and Lucas Bergvall for Wednesday’s tie.
"Difficult but not impossible," Tudor said of the task ahead.
"We need to stay in the game as much as possible and the game can be long, so focus on our strengths, our things we can have tomorrow and everything still to play. So, believe we can do it. That’s the most important thing.
"The main goal is to be focused on this game, even knowing our first thing is to stay in the (Premier) League, but tomorrow is let’s say a big challenge.
"After everything that happened in that (first) game to show that we can do good things against them, that they are not better than us. Champions League game. All the glory."
The return of Udogie and Bergvall to training on Tuesday after hamstring and calf injuries respectively was a much-needed boost and captain Romero is available despite his nasty clash of heads with team-mate Joao Palhinha in Madrid.
Palhinha remains unavailable and Conor Gallagher is also set to miss out.
"Destiny and Lucas will be on the bench tomorrow," Tudor added, with Richarlison, who scored the equaliser at Anfield, suspended.
"Joao, no. He is doing worse so he will be for the next game but Romero is in."
"(Gallagher) has, as you know, probably asthma problems. He has some virus to make some not nice things so we are going to see tomorrow."
Tudor later revealed in an in-house interview with SpursPlay that six-goal forward Dominic Solanke was a doubt to face Atletico.
"Dom has some small problems. We will see tomorrow how he is," Tudor confirmed.
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has revealed he is a "big fan" of Romero (above).
Romero was heavily linked with a transfer to Atletico last summer to join up with fellow Argentinian Simeone, but no move materialised and he subsequently signed a new contract at Spurs until the end of the 2028-29 campaign.
Tottenham’s disastrous season along with Romero’s own mixed form of two reds cards sandwiched between six goals has meant speculation about his future rumbles on, which led to Simeone being asked about his compatriot in Tuesday’s press conference.
"I speak from a point of view as an Argentina fan. I admire his personality, his character, his defensive work and his football ability on the ball," Simeone explained.
"As a fan of Argentina, I have seen him play more games for the national team than I have for Spurs, but I’m a big fan of him, for sure."
Watch Liverpool v Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday from 7.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport
