Gomes eyes Europa League spot

Gomes eyes Europa League spot

Heurelho Gomes wants to cap off his Premier League campaign by helping Tottenham earn European qualification.

Gomes' future at Spurs looked bleak when he was guilty of a series of high-profile blunders but boss Harry Redknapp kept faith in the 28-year-old and has been rewarded with a turnaround in form.

The former PSV Eindhoven stopper was assisted by goalkeeper coach Tony Parks, who helped him get to grips with the physical side of the English game, while the arrival of Carlo Cudicini added competition and pushed him.

After three years in the international wilderness, Gomes has taken advantage of an injury to Roma goalkeeper Doni and has been called-up to the Confederations Cup squad.

"I feel for Doni and hope he recovers quickly," said Gomes. "But I'm not sure this was the reason I was called up. I'm in a great phase and when you've been playing well, you always hope for a call-up."

Gomes is hoping for another end-of-season twist, with European qualification in Tottenham's sights.

They need to beat Liverpool at Anfield and hope Everton can do them a favour and defeat Fulham.

"We can win at Liverpool," Gomes said. "We have confidence for this game and we will give everything we have for one last time this season.

"Teams like Liverpool will always play well, but they do give you space to play, so we can definitely score.

"We will look to improve on our away form next season, because if we picked up more points on the road, we would be fighting even higher up the table."

Spurs will be hoping for a repeat of their fixture against Liverpool earlier in the season when they snatched a last-gasp victory despite being second best for most of the match.

"You have to be very lucky," said boss Redknapp. "You have to hope they miss six open goals - that's what happened when we beat them at home this year.

"They battered us for 75 minutes like you've never seen. It's amazing, we did the same at Blackburn the other week. We should have been four up and then got beat by two goals in the last 10 minutes.

"Liverpool were the same that day. At that time I thought they were certs to win the championship."

Rafael Benitez's men were defeated less times than Manchester United over the season but still lost the title to them, despite the efforts of England midfielder Steven Gerrard.

"He's a fantastic player, genuine world-class footballer," said Redknapp.

"If someone offered you any player to take, you're looking at Gerrard, (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Frank) Lampard, in my opinion.

"Steven Gerrard never knows when he's beaten, he can turn a game, like against West Ham in the cup final. He's the one person you don't want to have the ball in the last second of the game."

Redknapp is also expecting a warm reception for Robbie Keane after the striker spent six unhappy months at Liverpool before returning to Spurs.

"He gave everything he had when he was there," Redknapp said.


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