Real Madrid vs Tottenham: Hugo Lloris relishing chance to play against Cristiano Ronaldo

Lyon won the home leg 1-0 and when Ronaldo put the Galaticos ahead in the sixth minute at the Bernabeu, the Spanish giants looked set to march on.

But a Miralem Pjanic equaliser saw Lyon pull of a huge shock, going into the semi-finals where they were knocked out by Bayern Munich.

“We play in the Champions League to play against the best teams,” said Lloris. 

“It’s a massive opportunity for us. They know how to increase the levels because they have the experience in this competition to help them. 

“For us, we have to try to be solid and believe in ourselves, in our football. It is a collective sport and it is possible to make great achievements.

“The target is to be competitive and enjoy our football, to make a great team performance and to show the face of Tottenham. To play with our concepts, to keep possession, to be aggressive and try to be dominant.

“We have nothing to lose and all to win and we will play with this spirit.”

Madrid have won the competition for the last two seasons largely thanks to the genius of Ronaldo.

“He is an inspiration for the new generation, a machine of success with individual trophies and collective success,” added Lloris.

“He is a great leader and a great personality too. He has made a great impact on Real Madrid and the success of Real Madrid. 

“To have the opportunity to play for the best club in the world gives you the opportunity to play against the best players in the world.”

Lloris also raved about Madrid’s boss, the brilliant former France playmaker Zinedine Zidane.

“He is a legend in France and an inspiration for most of the players of my generation,” said Lloris.

“He won everything. He has great personality and was a legend as a player and I am not surprised about his success, even if I know football is even harder as a manager because of the pressure. 

“But what he has achieved for Real Madrid is fantastic. Seven titles means a lot – and the way he has managed so many of the best players.”

Tottenham’s hotshot striker Harry Kane is getting constantly linked with a move to Madrid, but Lloris insisted that would not affect the England star’s game.

“It’s part of football,” he added. “It’s been going on for a while now. It happens every week. It’s about for there to be speculation about Harry Kane. 

“He’s done such fantastic things for Tottenham and for sure will continue in this way. Harry has talked enough about his commitment to Tottenham and his love for the club. He will not be distracted – quite the opposite.”

Kane leads the scoring charts in Europe’s elite competition with five goals in Spurs’ games against Borussia Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia, one more than Ronaldo.

Kane also has six strikes in the Premier League and has scored 13 times in his last nine matches for club and country, but the acid test will come against Real tonight.

And fellow forward Fernando Llorente insisted: “We have great players who are capable of playing very good football and we have Harry Kane, who at the moment is turning everything he touches into a goal.

“There isn’t a great deal of difference among the top teams in Europe and I’d count Tottenham among them.”

Real have flattered to deceive in La Liga this season as they bid to defend the Spanish title for the first time since 2008, dropping points in four of their eight games, but like Spurs they have won both Champions League matches, convincingly beating APOEL and Dortmund.

They sit third in the domestic standings, five points behind leaders Barcelona and scraped an unconvincing 2-1 win at Getafe on Saturday thanks to a late strike from Ronaldo.

Llorente, who helped Juventus knock Madrid out of the 2014-15 Champions League semi-finals, recognises Zidane’s side are one of the top teams in the world but he believes Spurs can still find chinks in their armour.

“You have to keep their best players under control, you can’t just try and take the ball off them because they are much better in possession now and when they don’t have it they are still very dangerous on the counter-attack,” added Llorente.

“Madrid can kill you off easily because they have more quality and are more effective than most teams, but they always give you a chance.”