Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Spurs clobber the UEFA Champions 3-1, Man U wins and Barca falter

As hard as it is for me to have football allegiance, my tactical aptitude had me choosing Spurs over any other team, including Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid. By my standards and ratings, they have exceeded my expectations. Teams lose form or just play badly, and sometimes even get raw deals from circumstances beyond their control. I have always argued that it is not how you start that is important, but how you finish. For great teams, it is how they recover from these set backs, than getting there in the first place. The White Hart Lane are still suffering the Premiership/Champions League balancing act to strike the proper peaks for both and then accommodate the recovery periods with proper hypercompensation at the end of each mini-cycle. If you still crucify me for tipping Spurs for the team of 2010, I rest my case.

The UEFA Champions League across Europe was a class act led by the novices Tottenham Hotspur assault at home against champions Inter Milan. Spurs are failing to attract many admirers with their excellent performances, but then who cares. It was the fixture of the night as they could have scored thrice in the first half. Rafael van der Vaart was put through by Modric as Spurs bombarded Inter barrage after barrage. Peter Crouch went for power rather than tap-in a few minutes later and his effort went across the goal-line from a few yards out. Sneijder's free kick after Samuel Eto'o was brought down by Modric, was well saved by Gomes's deputy, Cudicini who had an excellent game.

A fast paced and entertaining affair that had action swinging from end to end was a duel of wits in tactics as Inter tried hard to deal with Gareth Bale who also tried to change his style by going central as soon as he had one run on the wing. Aaron Lennon tried to complement the left wing taking away the attention from Bale. Bale and Crouch missed the target by inches early in the second half. Spurs were much more stronger in central midfield that at any other time this season. Huddlestone was very solid and decisive giving the central defence the necessary cover and the other offensive midfielders the confidence to attack freely.

A strong trademark Bale run in the 60th minute resulted in the perfect cross being converted from close range for a 2-0 lead. Bale made the best right back in the world, Maicon, look so ordinary to be polite time and time again. After the second goal, he took him to the goal-line, left him for dead, and the goal-line official  ruled the ball had gone out after Crouch had tucked it in. Though ruled out, the effort saw the Inter lose all steam as Spurs sucked all wind off the champions.

Crouch was replaced by Palyvuchenko and the attacking power of the host lost some value. Jenas had come in at half-time for injured van der Vaart. Eto'o punished Spurs poor defending as they retreated in the 79th minute. A well drilled low shot curling away from the keeper and Inter felt they had a shout in the match and livened up their game hoping to cash up on the stakes. The match was then over as a contest with a Palyvuchenko goal. Bale, again, won possession in his own half, got on his bike and played the ball square to Palyvuchenko to finish. A 3-1 over the champions was a welcome relief for a side that has been having issues with officials. For the first time, there was no issue with the centre men for Spurs.

Barcelona went ahead when an offside trap went wrong and Lionel Messi, but his effort was cancelled moments later when a goalkeeper made a meal of a ball into the box and Copenhagen equalised. Barca were ordianry and were reduced to pedestrian pace in a mood that almost proved they are throwing the towel to Real Madrid. It may be a different competition by they were far from convincing.

Manchester United outplayed strugglers Bursaspor away with a convincing 3-0 win. United were cautious in the opening 45 minutes but went a gear up in the second half with a telling and decisive workman-like performance. The goals came from Darren Fletcher who opened the scoring early in the second half and then Gabriel Obertan scored with a long drive in the 73rd minute. Second half substitute Bebe completed the scoring with a cool finish after being a pass by Paul Scholes.

Werder Bremen lost to FC Twente 0-2 and Hopoel Tel Aviv and Shalke 04 drew 0-0 as did Rubin Kazan and Panathanaikos. Benfica were 4-3 victors over Lyon while Valencia blasted Rangers 3-0.

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