Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has challenged his players to "dominate" defending champions Real Madrid in their Champions League tie at the Bernabeu.

The Lilywhites travel to the Spanish capital in good form and with a perfect record in Europe this season, overcoming both Borussia Dortmund and APOEL in the first two Group H games.

Tuesday evening's task could not be any tougher for Spurs, however, as they take on the back-to-back winners of the competition away from home.

Despite the odds being against his side, Pochettino insists that Tottenham will stick to their attacking principles in search of a shock win.

"We will try to ­dominate," The Mirror quotes him as saying. "We will try to be better, but it's a massive challenge for us to dominate them. We will press high, try to play in the ­opposition's half, try to be ­aggressive and brave. That's how we feel football should be played. If they try to push us back deeper, then OK, we may have to adapt to their quality.

"But from the beginning we will be brave and aggressive and play to win the game. Everyone in ­football chooses their way to play. Football is so open with so many ideas and you must ­respect every way. But if you ask me, we are going to Madrid to play football and be ­Tottenham.

"We do not change because we are playing in ­Madrid. The first time is always important, to show that we can handle that pressure, and play in that type of game. It's a good opportunity for us. I'm so excited and ­motivated to go and put on a performance. It's Real Madrid, and we respect them - but we go to play.

"We're excited to play Real Madrid in the Champions League and our motivation is big. We're going to play one of the best teams in the world, if not the best team, and we need to be focused. We want to get to the next round of the Champions League and it's important we recover from this game. It's a very big challenge and we will go to play and try to win."

Spurs have won five games in a row in all competitions and have lost just one of their 11 games so far this season.