Jan Vertonghen admits Monaco “look strong” ahead of our Europa League clash this evening (Thursday, October 1).

The Belgian centre-half didn’t feature in our 3-1 win against Qarabag to kick off continental proceedings in Group J a fortnight ago, but is fully aware of the standard of opposition we’re facing in these early matches.

Understandably keen for us to build on that initial victory when we run out at Stade Louis II, Jan has underlined how our confidence and desire to perform well in this competition means we don’t fear the Ligue 1 side ahead of tonight's meeting.

“They’re a very good team but hopefully we can go there and play our own game,” said the 28-year-old.

“They look strong and they’ve got lots of quality so we have to be on top of our game, but we want to do well in Europe this year.

“I think we showed that in the first game when we put out a strong team, so the plan is to go there, try to win and keep our momentum going.”

Of course, we go into the match off the back of last weekend’s memorable 4-1 victory over Manchester City in the Premier League.

Jan believes the endeavour shown in that game proves what the squad is capable of and is keen to see more of the same as the season goes on.

“We all want to fight for each other – this team is a bunch of young guys, a bunch of friends and that showed on the pitch on Saturday,” he added.

“I think we had a very good game at the weekend – we were very sharp and we deserved the three points.

“We were fighting for each other for 90-plus minutes and that was reflected in the final score.”