Van der Vaart urges calm on Wednesday
Rafael van der Vaart wants his Tottenham team-mates to remain calm on Wednesday night rather than try to seek retribution from two weeks ago.
Spurs go into their Champions League Last-16 second-leg clash with Italian giants AC Milan with a 1-0 advantage, but there is still a lot of bad blood from the first encounter at the San Siro two weeks ago.
In a bad tempered match Spurs defender Vedran Corluka was stretchered off following a nasty two-footed challenge by former Arsenal star Mathieu Flamini, while Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso got involved in an ugly exchange with Spurs coach Joe Jordan in which the Italian headbutted the Scotsman.
Gattuso has been suspended and will not feature at White Hart Lane and while many supporters will want revenge on the Italians for their antics Van der Vaart wants to punish them with skill and entertainment rather than thuggery.
Van der Vaart has no worries that Corluka might seek retribution, insisting that all Tottenham's players know the importance of keeping 11 men on the pitch.
Van der Vaart said: “It's great that Vedran is fit. He is a very good player.
"Of course it was a hard tackle from Flamini, and maybe he's still a bit angry, but we need him, we need him for the whole 90 minutes.
"He is not going to do stupid things. It was a hard tackle, but that is part of the game.
"Was I upset at what happened with Joe? For me, the most important thing was that we won that game.
"They were a bit frustrated. Of course Gattuso wants to win every game, so he was a bit upset. But for me it wasn't a problem."