Spurs boss eager for FA Cup clash with Pompey

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp said it would be “a funny old day” after his team set up a Wembley FA Cup semi-final with former club Portsmouth.

But Redknapp urged his players, who face Portsmouth in the Premier League on Saturday, to keep focused on their run-in as they bid for a place in next season’s Champions League.

Tottenham came from behind against London rivals Fulham in Wednesday’s quarter-final replay to win 3-1 at White Hart Lane, setting up a Wembley showdown with Pompey on April 11.

“It’ll be a funny old day,” Redknapp said.

“They’ve got great supporters and it will be a great atmosphere. It will be good for Portsmouth as they obviously need something to lift their season.”

Redknapp won the FA Cup with Pompey in 2008 but gratitude from the south coast club’s fans is likely to be in short supply given their side descended into financial meltdown after he left to take up the Spurs job.

The debt-ridden club, now bottom of the league, were docked nine points for going into administration last week – virtually condemning them to relegation.

Redknapp believes this will make Portsmouth tough opponents in both of their upcoming meetings with the north London club, even though they were thrashed 5-0 by Chelsea in the league on Wednesday.

“They’ll be dangerous opposition. They’ll come here on Saturday and have a go and they’ll have a go in the Cup, that’s for sure,” Redknapp said.

Tottenham fell behind on Wednesday when striker Bobby Zamora scored from Damien Duff’s acute through-ball.

Redknapp made a double substitution at half-time and it paid dividends immediately when David Bentley scored with his first contribution, a free-kick from the left wing which evaded Australia’s Mark Schwarzer in Fulham’s goal.

The former Arsenal man then turned creator, crossing for another replacement, Roman Pavlyuchenko to volley sweetly into the goal from a difficult angle.

Loan-striker Eidur Gudjohnsen completed the scoring, poking the ball into the net after a sweet one-touch move.

Tottenham’s priority this year is remaining fourth in the Premier League, which will ensure Champions League qualification, but Redknapp claimed his injury-hit squad could still succeed on two fronts.

“The semi-final will be a great day but between now and then we’ve got some important league games,” he stressed.

“That fourth spot is there for someone to grab and we’re playing well, we’ve got a great spirit in the team and have as good a chance as anybody.

“It’s going to be a tight one and I wouldn’t write Liverpool off. I’ve looked at the fixtures and it’s going to be close.

“There aren’t that many games left now and if we can get one or two players fit then we’ll be flying but we’re getting desperately short of defenders,” Redknapp added.

Croatia defender Vedran Corluka was forced off with an ankle problem and centre-half Sebastien Bassong suffered an injury against Fulham.

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson was clearly disappointed but denied his players were fatigued.

The former Inter boss has a Europa League quarter-final against Wolfsburg to look forward to after Fulham’s dramatic victory over Juventus last week.

But he still felt his team deserved more from Wednesday’s game following an initial goalless draw with Spurs in the original quarter-final tie.

“I don’t think it showed that we’ve had a lot of games, we matched them pretty well,” Hodgson said.

“When a team gets fatigued it gets over-run and that’s not what happened in the game, they just scored two wonder-goals.”

However, Hodgson admitted he was concerned about talismanic striker Zamora, who was substituted after being sick at half-time.

“Hopefully this is not a serious problem,” he said.