Tottenham ready to take the fight to Real Madrid in baptism of fire at the Bernabeu

'It is a great opportunity and everyone is excited to play here
Mauricio Pochettino has been bullish in the build-up to the clash against Real
This will not quite be the biggest game of Hugo Lloris’ career – he played in the Euro 2016 final last summer – but it will be one of the grandest. To faceReal Madridin theChampions League, winners of this trophy in three of the last four years, is as good at it gets in club football. Nothing in England comes close. For the rest of his younger, less experiencedTottenham team-mates, that will be even truer.That is what Mauricio Pochettino meant when he said this week that never having played against Madrid in the Bernabeu was like never being baptised, because of the religious aura possessed by the world’s biggest football club.Lloris has in fact played here before, and triumphed, part of the Lyon team that knocked Real out of the 2010 Champions League in the last-16, costing Manuel Pellegrini his job. But that was a very different time for Real Madrid, their sixth straight last-16 exit. Three European Cups later they are back on top of the game. And for Spurs’ younger players - Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Eric Dier - this will be unlike anything they have ever experienced before. And there is not much that Pochettino – despite his extensive experience here as a player and coach of Espanyol – can do to prepare them for it.