James Maddison responds to Ange Postecoglou's comments on the Champions League

Tottenham Hotspur is getting closer to clinching a Champions League spot for the 2024/25 season after defeating Nottingham Forest on Sunday. The North London side made a statement against their opponents with a 3-1 win to cash in on Aston Villa's tie on Saturday.

These results leave Tottenham at fourth in the Premier League standings, with one game in hand on Villa, as well as the tiebreaker. It seems like the Liliwhite are well on their way to the continental tournament, although they still have plenty of games to play.

That said, Spurs' star James Maddison admits that the club has a big goal, which is playing European football next year. The former Leicester City midfielder admitted that the club is striving to fight for championships, but under current circumstances, playing in the big tournament is also a priority for them.

“I get the manager not wanting to talk about [finishing in the top four], but I am not going to lie to your face and say you don’t think about that, because we want to be in the Champions League,” Maddison said. (h/t The Standard)

“This club needs to be in the Champions League, [it’s] non-negotiable really, and that’s the aim. That’s why we’ll try to finish strong and get that.”

These comments come after Ange Postecoglou downplayed the Champions League race with Aston Villa. The Greek-Australian boss stated he's not that interested in the mini-race with the Villains, as he's looking at the bigger picture for his side.

Postecoglou has always made it clear that his goal is to collect silverware with the Spurs and he's taking the last matches of the season as preparations to play for bigger things next campaign.

"Yeah, go right for it, right from the start. Couldn't care less about the race for fourth mate. What I care about is the way the team is progressing. Pleased with today. It had a little bit of everything. We started the game well, not just the goal, I thought we controlled the game well. Then we conceded from a counter-attack which was obviously disappointing. I thought we lost our way a little bit towards the back end of that first half, but a super reaction, and the whole second half we were really dominant," he said. (h/t football.london)

"We played some good football and scored a couple of good goals and created a couple more against a team that is desperate for points and fighting for everything. I guess every team is fighting for something and I thought we handled it really well."

This has been a tumultuous season for Tottenham, but everybody believes they're on the right track to compete with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City. The North Londoners are hungry to win and let everybody know that they're more than just a fourth-place squad.