Benitez to use English experience to down Tottenham

Inter Milan Rafael Benitez will call on six years of Premier League experience as he looks to plot Tottenham’s downfall in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The title holders host Harry Redknapp’s side in the San Siro with outright leadership of Group A the prize for whoever wins.

The two teams are level on four points after two games with Inter ahead on goal difference after beating Werder Bremen 4-0 last time out while Spurs also hit four but conceded one against FC Twente.

Few coaches will be better poised to confront a Redknapp team than Benitez, who faced his opposite number 13 times in the Premier League.

While Benitez was in charge of Liverpool, many of those matches saw Redknapp at the helm of Southampton and Portsmouth but still their record is even.

The current Tottenham side, with Rafael van der Vaart pulling the strings, is probably the best ever team managed by Redknapp and Benitez knows his side will be in for a stern test.

Which is why he is hoping to have Esteban Cambiasso, Goran Pandev and Ivan Cordoba back fit.

“If we get a bit of luck we could see them back against Tottenham on Wednesday,” said the Spaniard.

“I expect a difficult match against a team that is mentally strong, who push high up the pitch and are good on the counter attack.

“We’re going to have to play very well if we want to win.”

Inter are likely to be without last season’s star striker Diego Milito but in his absence Samuel Eto’o has been in sizzling form in a central role.

The Cameroon captain has 12 goals in 11 games in all competitions as he relishes his move inside from his usual position on the left flank.

But Benitez denies that his team has become over-reliant on Eto’o, the match winner again on Sunday and who hit a hat-trick against Bremen.

“I don’t think that’s a risk, especially now that we’re getting some players back from injury,” added Benitez.

“In this way we have even more ways to score goals and win games.”

Redknapp for his part is more than aware of the threat Eto’o poses but he is also wary of the strength of the reigning champions as a whole.

It is Tottenham’s first ever crack at Europe’s Premier club competition in its Champions League format and the former West Ham boss knows his team must respect those with better records and greater experience.

And he is clear about what his primary aim at the San Siro will be: avoiding defeat.

“I couldn’t sit here and say we?ll be wide open,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.

“You?ve got to go there and play sensibly against the better teams, you?ve got to be difficult to beat away from home. Let’s not kid ourselves. If we come back with a point we would all be delighted.

“So you?ve got to go out there and hit them on the break. We’d like to win but we’re not going to go out and start swarming all over them – they are a top team, so you have to be aware of that.

“There is real danger. Eto’o is playing fantastically well.”

However, Redknapp insists his team are more than capable of causing Inter problems.

“We’ve always got attacking players. Whoever we pick we will have more than our share of players who want to go forward and create or score goals. That is how we play.”

Tottenham will have to be tighter than they have proved in their previous away games in the competition, losing 3-2 at Young Boys in the qualifier and drawing 2-2 with Werder.

Inter have not had the best of records against English teams in recent years, although they did beat Chelsea home and away in the second round last season.

However in the two previous years Manchester United and Liverpool eliminated them at the same stage.