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...
Inherent sloppiness at crucial moments threatens to damage whatever tactics Mauricio Pochettino uses in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first legThere are two ways to play against Manchester City. You can press high up the pitch, as Liverpool and Lyon have with some success over the past two seasons, and try to force their defenders actually to defend, or you can sit deep, look to absorb pressure and hit them on the break. Jürgen Klopp may have dismissed the bunker mentality as being akin to looking to win the lottery, attempting to restrict the number and quality of the chances City have but essentially accepting they will have some and hoping they will miss – but it worked for Newcastle, Crystal...
The Champions League quarter-final is latest in a line of often spine-tingling English derbies in Europe’s top competitionA new chapter in the colourful history of English teams meeting each other in the Champions League is set to open on Tuesday, when the first European game at Tottenham’s shiny new stadium is bound to generate an atmosphere all of its own.In such circumstances anything can happen, and all-England European nights already have a reputation for taking on a life of their own, sharing a similarity to derbies in which form and league placing are temporarily set aside. Related: Quadruple is on for Manchester City as the impossible becomes a reality | Paul Wilson Related: Football’s final furlong: our writers predict how...
Tottenham’s new stadium is a place of wonder underpinned by a crushing anxiety for team success and the money that bringsWelcome back then, Tottenham Hotspur. If the idea was to create something that felt unmistakably like home then the players did their best in the first half against Crystal Palace, producing a performance shot through with anxiety, met by intermittent waves of dread from the home crowd. Hello darkness, my old friend. You can take the twitchy blue-and-white shirts out of White Hart Lane, but you can’t take the Spurs out of Spurs. Related: Son Heung-min christens new stadium with first Spurs goal in win over Palace The journey The old White Hart Lane was hidden from view until you...
The margins are fine but Jürgen Klopp’s gamble paid off on Sunday and has added a little belief to a team and fanbase wilting under the weight of expectationIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of GOATs, it was the epoch of frauds, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, they had everything before them, they had nothing before them, they were all going direct to Heaven, they were all going direct the other way. It was a period in which the...