Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas has laughed off Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas' battle cry ahead of tonight's Europa League clash.

Aulas, who complained about Tottenham's negotiating tactics over Hugo Lloris last summer, sounded a battle cry to his team.

He told Radio Scoop: "The Europa League is a competition that is made for clubs like us. This may allow us to pursue a path to the Champions League. I can not imagine how great it will be if that happens.

"I can not imagine for a moment that we will let anything slip against Les Rosbifs."

Villas-Boas, who will field Brad Friedel in goal rather than Lloris, played down Aulas' comments, saying: "He is a very, very charismatic leader of Lyon.

"It's not because of his words we're going to lose the concentration on our objective.

"We're going to face a tough, tough team and what I can decipher from those words is Lyon will be extremely up the challenge and it will be extremely difficult for us."