Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario insists the players can handle the pressure of Thursday's Europa League last-16 decider against AZ Alkmaar and says the squad remains fully behind head coach Ange Postecoglou
The competition is Spurs' final chance of salvaging a disappointing campaign and finishing Postecoglou's second season with a trophy, but they trail 1-0 in the tie after a hugely underwhelming display in Alkmaar last week.
The game is being billed as make or break for both the club's season and Postecoglou's entire project but Vicario says the players are totally committed to the Australian's approach.
"Yes, I can say that his approach has been very, very committed since day one when he joined here," Vicario said.
"He delivered to us the same way to play the game because he truly believes in this. We can be successful in this way and we are fully behind him, fully trying to do the right things that he believes are working for us.
"We are very, very committed to doing that and we have proved that. When we are at 100 per cent here in the brain and very, very committed to that I think we proved and showed what we can do.
Vicario added: "We know exactly what the game means tomorrow night, we are very conscious of it, and we just want to win the game.
"In terms of pressure, every Sunday and Thursday for six months we are dealing with that. It’s about getting in the best mindset to face AZ. It will be a big clash and we are very ready to play this game.
"The pressure is on us because we play the game, so we have to deal with that. But we are used to dealing with pressure day by day because we play every three days. We know the importance of the game tomorrow, for everyone at this football club, for us players, for the fans especially.
"But I think with all the support we will have tomorrow in the stadium, it will be an exciting night. We are really looking forward to playing tomorrow."
After the first leg, which was settled by Lucas Bergvall's own goal, Vicario called for the side to show "the real Spurs" in the decider.
Asked what he meant, the Italy stopped said: "Tomorrow the real Spurs will be judged just about winning. Of course if we don’t win we are out of the competition. We know that will be tough so we have to embrace this. We know this.
"The good Spurs tomorrow will be just the winning Spurs. To win, we will need our best performance in terms of how we approach the game, how we are tuned into the game.
“And then of course we have to show our best qualities in terms of playing the football and put pressure on them. Because we put pressure on them. Of course because we play at our place and we know we have to do that."
Vicario appeared to clash with travelling Spurs supporters in the away end last week but he called for "togetherness" between the players and fans this week.
"They will deliver and then it’s on us what we can show tomorrow," Vicario said.
"We know exactly what we're going to face. We will face a good side. They showed this at their place. The best version of Spurs for tomorrow night is togetherness from us on the pitch and the fans in the stands.
"With this mindset and mentality we can go through this round.
"Of course we’ll try [to win the competition] and we have a big opportunity in the Europa League. Of course we’ll start from tomorrow, try to get through the game, it will be a tough one we know. Then we’ll see. Of course we try to win every game of football and then we see at the end of the season what we can achieve."
