Wednesday 16 February 2011

AC Milan 0 - 1 Tottenham

AC Milan 0 Tottenham Hotspur 1: Match Report by Henry Winter, The Telegraph

"This was a magical night, a wonderful evening in keeping with the great “glory, glory” traditions of Tottenham Hotspur. Defending with determination and intelligence, pressing relentlessly in midfield and attacking with pace and precision to score through Peter Crouch, Spurs conjured up one of their finest European displays."

I couldn't have put it better myself Henry!

What a magnificent performance. I know this isn't the greatest Milan side in history (although perhaps one of the dirtiest), but to go to the San Siro in the last 16 of the Champions League and beat them on their own patch is one of the greatest results in our history and certainly one of my proudest nights in my 24 years as a Spurs fan. The tie isn't over yet but we have an excellent chance of making the Quarter Finals in our debut season. Whatever happens, this game will long live in the memory.

In all my excitement/nervousness I'd not actually realised that Birmingham v Newcastle was taking place in the Premier League last night, but it was, and Newcastle gained a vital 3 points at St Andrews with an excellent 2-0 away win. I only had Bentley & Roger Johnson so I wasn't expecting too much when I saw the result, but they somehow provided 19 points between them. This pushes me up to 124 points & 94th overall with 8 double gamers to go - nice!

Now of course we don't have a deadline this weekend as we are still in an extended Week 27, so there won't be any player picks or team/injury updates, but there's still plenty of action to follow in the Champions League, Europa Cup & FA Cup, so I'll ensure I post anything I feel you may find useful. Arsenal v Barcelona tonight... I cannot wait for that!

What did you think of the game last night? Did you pick up any points from Birmingham or Newcastle players? Predictions for tonight? I'll go for another Emirates 2-2.

Cheers,
AM

28 comments:

Chinu said...

first :D

Anonymous said...

5 players to go....

Ken said...

Congratulations to the Spurs!!!

I have mentioned in the past that I continue too seek out the team that I would refer to as "my team". The one I follow & cheer for over & above all others. Although I have not gathered enough knowledge to make a decision, here is where I stand so far.
(1) Manchester United
(2) Tottenham (AM. Influenced most likely)
(3) Liverpool

Anyone care to "influence" me further?

I must say in all my research I have found the Tottenham following to be the most passionate and what I would term, the most down to earth fans.

Time for me to give myself a history lesson I guess.

Again, congratulations to all Spurs fans.

madness said...

well done, Spurs...you'll probably get further in CL than Arsenal :(

Doctor Teeth said...

What more can I say...yesterday's match at the San Siro was probably the proudest moment of my 20+ years of supporting Spurs, yet another occasion on which the team showed its class and its arrival as a big side to the world on one of the sport's grandest stages. The performance was top notch from whistle to whistle...absolute domination of the rossoneri in the first half followed by a calm and collected response to a fiery attack by the homeside in the second half and a sublimely swift counterattack to take the full three points. Without the wizardry of Bale and (for 60 minutes) Modric, the midfield played maybe its best game of the season with Sandro and Palacios constantly disrupting Milan's flow and Pienaar and Lennon bombing down the wings to and fro, delivering the ball into the box and tracking back on defense all night. Top shelf performance from Gomes (unfortunately, this type of display comes too rarely form the Brazilian). Just an awesome, exciting match all around. There's a lot of football left to be played but given Spurs' performance at the Lane this year, one has to feel comfortable/confident in the team's chances to advance. Simply amazing (who would have thunk it back in August when we struggled against Young Boys of Bern?).

If Spurs played like this every night, they would challenge for the Premiership title every season. What will be interesting to see is what type of performance we get out of the squad at Blackpool this weekend...if I can make one criticism of Spurs this year it's that they seem to play down to their competition (but for unforgivable losses to West Ham and Wigan this year, Spurs would be sitting comfortably in the top 2 of the league).

Ken - whatever you do, don't become another dime a dozen United supporter. :)

Benjitrain said...

ugh yahoo code disgusts me. When you make changes to your squad make sure NOT to hit "undo all changes" I just lost my discounts on two of my players.

Anonymous said...

@benji: the only way you could lost discounts is ifyou had already saved your team previously. I am assuming you didn't actually save your team after the price change and thus when you hit undo went back to your actual saved team. Word of note, if you don't save at that moment of BD then the fluctuation of price can actually make you go red negative and you wont be able to save any way.

Anonymous said...

@benji: the only way you could lost discounts is ifyou had already saved your team previously. I am assuming you didn't actually save your team after the price change and thus when you hit undo went back to your actual saved team. Word of note, if you don't save at that moment of BD then the fluctuation of price can actually make you go red negative and you wont be able to save any way.

petra said...

doctor teeth, if spurs HAD beat west ham and wigan, they would be on equal points with arsenal, and around 20 goals behind on goal difference. they would have to have scored around 20 goals in those two games to be in second place, and even so, I'm not entirely sure that that counts as "sitting comfortably". just saying...

Doctor Teeth said...

Petra - I was speaking loosely...I guess what I meant to say is that Spurs would not be sweating out finishing in the top 4 nearly as much as they are currently had they not dropped points to those bottom dwellers. It's pretty bizarre to beat Arsenal and AC Milan on the road and Inter Milan at home while also losing to two sides that are destined to be playing in the Championship next August.

Alex said...

A good result, yes it was, I would be chuffed if it was my team too, but hey this is no david v golliath act, Spurs have far outspent AC in recent years and their team sheet is far better, far better than most (and spent most) in the EPL, had Harry just conjoured up a striker signing, where I feel they do fall short, they would be sniffing at the title.

Not taking away the result, but just putting into context, now Gomes...how has this guy become so good for someone that was almost hounded out? good to see Woody back too.

E said...

@Ken

I would say just pick players, managers or owners that you like and go from there. I know that all three of the above will eventually leave the club and of course there's the old 'no individual is bigger than the club itself', but still when you first start supporting a team it's good to support people you like.

I don't support anyone in England (Celtic in Scotland) but I like SAF, VDV and 'Arry Redknapp as people, and others too of course. Usually I just like taking each game as it comes and support a team on the day. Sometimes this is better. That's all I can say really. :)

As for Spurs, man, AM, you must be a very happy man right now. Congratulations. Like you said, even if Milan skin you at WHL (unlikely but who knows) you've still got a hell of a victory last night. Nothing can now take that away.

I had Barton, Bentley and Zigic. Not a great return last night by any standards. Still I've got 7 more DGs.

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

Don't listen to Doc Teeth he told me to drop Coloccini and Clichy this week!!!

really hope Napoli win the Serie A because Milan looked like shit last night, Italy deserves a better team than that to be its Champions

Bojan said...

3:2 Arsenal win... i dont know how, but that is my prediction

Anonymous said...

This "first" or "1st" thing you see all over blogs these days, obviously I've noticed it for a year or two now, but what is it?

I see it and think what's the point...

Have I missed something, did some celebrity do it one time and everyone followed or something?

Oh and I'm on 140 points, have rose to 239th.

Anonymous said...

Sweet win for Spurs, but you guys do realize Milan was playing with only 2 legit midfielders. Either way, now they don't even have Gattuso for the return leg, sukkas. hehehe.

Benjitrain said...

@anonymous -

I'm not an idiot. I had people saved in then I dropped people to experiment. When I hit undo all changes it lost my discounts on two of the players I had saved.

greginho said...

impressive win, finally, for arsenal over barca. now they need to tie the next game. an even more impressive win at the san siro for spurs. maybe these two will be in the semi-finals with bayern and lyon,

joshtottenham said...

@jddh...yes but there comes a point with teams where they are bringing injury problems on themselves...you cannot have an average team age of about 55 and expect them to be fit. AC have had years to sort out their aging squad, yet Gattuso, Nesta, Pirlo are still key players. Its as if Spurs complained continuously that Gallas and Dawson are 3rd and 4th choice CB cos of woodgate and king, or Liverpool acting like they shouldn't have a better 2nd choice than N'gog when Torres was 1st choice.

Anonymous said...

ROBIN IS GOD

Anonymous said...

Well, since I was messing around with YFF in July 2007, wanting to see what it was and chose to join "Fans of Tottenham" thus picking them as "my team" this definitely is a good night (afternoon here in the States). But I wouldn't say it is my most memorable. The Carling Cup win we had in the 07-08 season ranks up there, avoiding relegation in 08-09 also ranks up there.

However, I still think the Danny Rose goal last year is my favorite Spurs moment as long as I have been a fan. Maybe it was because the game aired live here in the States, or maybe it's because I still did not believe that goal had a chance when it left Rose's foot, or maybe because it was against Arsenal (Tottenham's main rival, though my main rival is Liverpool being that my friend that followed EPL was a huge LIV fan so we smack talked alot), but that goal is aweseome. I watch it all the time. Also, because it helped us get to CL this year.

However, if we go on to win this series, then it will rank up there for sure. I just hope we can hold Milan off at White Hart Lane.

STLRam01

Anonymous said...

RVP, pure class!

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

I suppose there won't be a post titled "Barcelona 1 - 2 Arsenal" tomorrow??? :P

North London is strong in the CL this week!

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

@Ram, Danny Rose has been on loan 3 times and never scored a single goal, but has played for tottenham once and scored the decisive goal of the game, what a bunch of lucky shit.

Anonymous said...

@joshtottenham: I totally agree. It's their fault. I was actually surprised they couldn't bring up any youngster from their reserves. Incredible. Either way, the point I was trying to make is that even though Spurs beat Milan and will likely advance, I'm not sure how far they can go considering they might end up matching up against somebody who will not be suffering such injury crisis.

Anonymous said...

Tottenham beat Milan, simple, it wasn't because of age or injuries. Didn't they top a group including the european champions? I'm an Inter fan but i think Spurs can match any team out there, if they get trashed it's because it can happen to anyone.

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

Bah Spurs! ARSENAL!

Benjitrain said...

big talker online, nice. I clearly explained the situation and you assumed I did not save the players which I lost discounts. I had them both saved at their discounts well before the matches for this week had even been played. I'm glad douchebags holier art than thous are still roaming the blog. I hope you die in a car crash. The world would be a better place. And if you're a manu/chelski/italian diveball fan, twice as great.

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