Carling Cup - Woodgate 'okay' for Wembley

Eurosport - Tue, 24 Feb 18:06:00 2009

Tottenham defender Jonathan Woodgate has declared himself fit for Wembley this weekend and believes his side are poised to upset the odds and defeat Manchester United in the Carling Cup final.

FOOTBALL 2008-09 Premier League - Jonathan Woodgate rises to head the winning goal for Spurs against Hull - 0

Woodgate, who scored the winner in the final against Chelsea last year, needed stitches in a head wound against Hull yesterday but has insisted his injury is "okay".

His focus is now on facing United and winning back-to-back trophies.

"On our day, we can beat anyone," Woodgate said. "We have proved that in the past. It's not going to be easy, but it won't be easy for United either.

"We will go there and we will look to lift the trophy."

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp agrees his side have nothing to fear, but he is wary of making it an open cup final.

"You respect but don't fear them because we also have good players for them to worry about," Redknapp said.

"You have to make sure you stay in the game and therefore there is no point going out there and starting gung-ho. You need to adopt a good shape, be solid, have a plan and know what you are doing against them.

"But we won't sit back - we will have a go. We have good attacking players and we hope to cause them problems as well."

For Redknapp, the key to the final will be about striking a balance between attack and defence.

"You have to be so careful because if you open up too much you can get absolutely ripped to pieces," he said.

"You can't just think 'okay, we'll play 4-4-2 and attack them all over the place' because they are possibly the best team in Europe. But we will be getting at them in all departments."

Sporting Life / Eurosport

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  1. Why worry about the Carling Cup final if Harry will­ not­ want to play in UEFA cup anyway? The Carling cup­ is the­ lowest of all cups and Redknapp will need a­ minimum of­ 33 world class players to want to play more­ than one­ game per week. He may save Spurs from the­ drop but he­ will always be a small club manager.

    From Martin, on Thu 26 Feb 2:08AM
  2. COME ON YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU­ SPUUUURRRRSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From alancrossan, on Wed 25 Feb 9:40PM
  3. Think it will be a trilling cup final like last season,­ it won't be a walk over for man u. Woodgate is fit­ which is great news but i think dawson should start­ ahead of ledley king as we need to save king for the­ more important game against boro that wednesday in the­ league. We need to keep our premier league status, and­ even if we do lose this sunday we get in the europe as­ man u are obviously getting a europeon spot!!!­ Pavlyuchenko to win it for the mighty spurs!

    From kennybanks2, on Wed 25 Feb 5:07PM
  4. Manure will be beaten at wembley,even if it has to go­­ to penalties. Spurs will raise their game alot higher­­ then recently,and will surprise alot of people who­­ think its going to be a walk in the park for the­­ mancs!! COYS we're wembley bound again!!

    From Wayne, on Wed 25 Feb 4:58PM
  5. Man u will beat tottenham for sure..and it will be an­ intresting match...Go Man u!!!!

    From mUSe, on Wed 25 Feb 10:45AM
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