This has been a great time for football in the last few weeks; well it has for me anyway. Obviously if this is not your first visit to this blog then you know that my first footballing love are Tottenham Hotspur, And The fact that this year I have seen Tottenham triumph over both Milan giants makes this the best season since I started to support Spurs back in the early 90’s. Obviously the AC Milan vs Spurs match is only half over but we must be favourites to go through and even if we crash out at this stage I think we have proved that we deserved our place in the European Elite competition, there is every chance that we will be muscled out by the Money men at Man City and Chelsea but at least we proved that a club built on sound financial management and slow improvement can operate at the highest level, and unlike when Leeds gatecrashed the party built on speculation that it would be a recurring invite Tottenham can survive not playing in next years Champions League (Although if we can keep Bale and Van Der Vaart is another question.) And unlike Everton’s brief soirée a few years later we have also proven that we can match some of the best that Europe has to offer – Although in fairness with our recent records against Arsenal and Chelsea I think we already knew that.
It is a great bit of justification for Spurs fans, when Tottenham qualified last season I was told by many fans of Champions League teams (Mostly Chelsea but this is because I was working in South London and they were everywhere.) that we would not make it through qualification, Then after the draw for the groups was announced it was exclaimed happily that We were doomed and could never beat Inter Milan, then after the last draw I was confidently told, albeit at a lesser volume than the start, that AC Milan would humiliate us at the San Siro. I am happy to report that they are wrong once more, despite this and possibly due to the immense disappointment I have had over the years I am still cautious about declaring Tottenham the victors as it is only a one goal lead and anything can happen however we are in control of our own destiny and the Lane has been an intimidating fortress over the last few years so things are looking very bright.
The match itself was notable for the Attack of Gattuso on Joe Jordan our 60 year old first team coach (And voted number 34 in the list of 100 hardest footballers) This really was a game of two halves, in the first half Tottenham dominated, had most of the good attacks and looked set to dominate the AC Milan team who simply couldn’t find any rhythm the second half however Milan came out in a different move and seemed determined that if they could not out play Tottenham they would try and out muscle them, this also proved problematic however as Milan’s five footers struggled to muscle 6ft 7In Peter Crouch, they decided instead to rely on Cheating and unsportsmanlike behaviour. The main talking points (Other than the diminutive Hair Ball (Gattuso) attacking the Bald Giant (Jordon)) were the tackle by Flamini on Corluka which will hopefully not cause any serious injuries but shockingly did not result in a Red Card and the Tottenham Goal where Spurs particularly Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric and Crouch demonstrated that along with the flair and patient build up play we demonstrated in the first half there is also a killer counter attacking element to the team, one they must be fearful off when they visit the Lane
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