Mauricio Pochettino has ‘a certain weakness for Zinedine Zidane’

Tottenham travel to the Spanish capital to take on the reigning European champions on Tuesday, but Pochettino must put his personal feelings aside ahead of the match.

The Spurs manager has praised the job Zidane has done since he replaced Rafael Benitez as Real Madrid boss in January 2016.

The Spanish giants won La Liga last season and became the first team to retain the European Cup in its current format, the Champions League. Zidane was in charge of both successful campaigns, and also won Europe’s elite club competition as a player during the 2001-02 season, scoring a spectacular volley in the final against Bayer Leverkusen.

And Pochettino found it difficult to hide his admiration for the Frenchman.

"Madrid have been the best team in the world in the last few years," he told beIN Sports.

"They've proved that and, honestly, I have a certain weakness for Zinedine Zidane, as a footballer and now.

"Of course, we'll try to use our weapons to play a good game and to win, because we're going there to win."

Tottenham and Real Madrid are level on points at the top of Group H, having both beaten Borussia Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia.