Arsenal used to be in a strikingly similar position to Tottenham now but Spurs dont want to follow their rivals path since 2006the short interval since Tottenhams wild, fun, chancy away-goals victory at Manchester City in the Champions League there has been a shared urge to draw the starkest of comparisons between the two clubs: their finances, their structure, the various degrees of faux-humble Jedi-cardigan fraudulence exhibited by their managers. It is in many ways a meaningless exercise. This is a comparison of two entirely separate things, entirely separate ways of trying to reach the same point, not to mention one that is inevitably flattering to Spurs and inevitably bruising for Pep Guardiola and the football-style soft-power project operating in...
Without the intervention of technology, Manchester City would be through to a Champions League semi-final and Spurs would have been robbedThere is always the chance, when English clubs meet in European knockout football, that players who know each other so well will treat it as a pumped-up Premier League encounter rather than showing the respect and caution they might have afforded continental opponents, and the memorably frenetic showdown between Manchester City and Tottenham was an instant classic of the genre.Never mind the woeful defending in the first 20 minutes, the inability of either side to hold on to an advantage or manage the game professionally, this was English football at its most appealing because both teams were going for goals...
Pep Guardiola suffered another Champions League exit with Manchester City on a night where all hope of controlling the game was lost early onPep Guardiola aways did get a bit tetchy when people asked him about Manchester City doing the quadruple. On the bright side, he is in the clear now.Although as ever Guardiola will not be entirely free from questions at the end of a wild, thrilling, at times utterly mindbending match. There is a theory that Guardiola, the master of control and systems, just isnt suited to the intangibles of one-off knockout football, nights where an entire campaign can be thrown away in a fit of human frailty or a surge of irresistible emotion. Related: Spurs prevail in...
Frenkie de Jong is unlikely to be the last of this team to depart in the summer after their Champions League exploits“Every year one or two big names leave,” acknowledged Michael van Praag, the Ajax president, in March 1997. “It is sad, especially for me. But we are used to it. There is absolutely no panic.” More than two decades on from the last time the four-times European Cup winners reached the semi-finals, the faces may have changed but there is still no hiding from the bald truth in the Ajax boardroom. Their chief executive, Edwin van der Sar – the goalkeeper in the famous 1995 Champions League final victory against Milan and in the defeat to Juventus 12 months...
One of Tottenham or Manchester City will definitely go through and Liverpool have the easiest opponents which leaves only Manchester United, who need to win in BarcelonaThese have been a memorable few weeks for Tottenham. I have not been to their stadium but the images online look incredible and the Spurs supporters’ response to it has been extremely positive. In two games there they have two victories and they are yet to concede a goal. On Tuesday they took control of their Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City, with Son Heung-min scoring another vital goal. Related: In praise of the Cup Winners' Cup, the competition that was never retained Related: Pogba says Manchester United must be ‘killers in front of...