Dejan Kulusevski believes Tottenham can deal with Bodo/Glimt’s artificial pitch | OneFootball

Dejan Kulusevski believes Tottenham can handle Bodo/Glimt’s artificial surface and stay on track to finish a disappointing season in the best way later this month.

Spurs will next week head to Aspmyra Stadion in the Arctic Circle with a two-goal advantage after they earned a 3-1 win in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final first-leg tie.

A late goal from Ulrik Saltnes provided hope for Norwegian minnows Bodo, who will have captain Patrick Berg and Hakon Evjen back from suspension and boast a formidable home record, with Twente, Olympiacos and Lazio all defeated there in the knock-out rounds this campaign.

Ange Postecoglou has taken plenty of criticism for Tottenham’s disastrous Premier League season – with the club in 16th position – but backed his squad to “get the job done” in Norway and cited their quarter-final displays against Eintracht Frankfurt as evidence of their ability.

Kulusevski echoed the sentiments of his under-pressure manager and talked up the prospect of ending the club’s 17-year trophy drought on May 21 in the Europa League final in Bilbao.

“When you do performances like (Frankfurt), you want to repeat them,” Kulusevski said.

“I think in Europe, we play a little bit different. We play with less risk and we put the ball up more in the space like we did today and we got to keep doing that in Europe.

“This season has been really disappointing but at least, let’s finish it in the best possible way. We have got to do everything possible every day to make it happen.

Dejan Kulusevski (right) is confident Tottenham can handle Bodo/Glimt’s artificial surface (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)

“It is different football (on an artificial pitch), it is a different pitch, but in life, you have to do what you have to do to find a way to win and we have got to do that.”

Asked if Spurs would train on an artificial pitch before the second leg, Kulusevski said: “Yes, probably we have to do it. It is good for me. I have been playing it in Sweden so I should be prepared.”

Kulusevski started on the bench after his recent injury lay-off, but watched Tottenham make an electric start in front of a white-hot atmosphere as Brennan Johnson headed in a 38-second opener.

The decibel levels went through the roof as James Maddison continued his excellent form in the European knock-out stages with a 34th-minute goal to follow up key contributions in the victories over Frankfurt and AZ Alkmaar.

After Dominic Solanke slotted home a cool penalty after 61 minutes, Spurs had chances to grab a fourth with Destiny Udogie, Kulusevski and Mathys Tel all going close before Saltnes reduced the deficit for Bodo.

Yet, Kulusevski insisted: “Happy with the 3-1 win. It is good to be winning an important game like this, so it is perfect.

“It was beautiful, really beautiful (the atmosphere). Hopefully it can be like this every week.

“It was unbelievable. The energy was there. Then we got to 2-0. We always wanted more goals but 3-1 is good.

“We are still two up. We are Tottenham and we have to go there and win the game.”