Spurs loss bonus

Thursday, 07/04/2011

by James Willis, Shoot’s Tottenham blogger

Tottenham lost to the most successful side in the history of European football at their home stadium after reaching the latter stages of a tournament they've never been in before.

When it's said that way, the 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first leg match doesn't sound quite so bad.

Despite a very poor performance from a few of the Tottenham players and an overall sorry score line, many of the Spurs players put in shifts that they can be proud of at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday.

With Aaron Lennon absent from the clash, Real Madrid were always going to be hard to break down on the right hand side. Lennon's absence left Jenas to step into an unfamiliar role and while he did a solid job in the position, his inexperience led to Cristiano Ronaldo having many chances to run at Vedran Corluka in the right back position.

Corluka did an excellent job of holding off Ronaldo for most of the game, as did Benoit Assou-Ekotto with Angel Di Maria on the opposite side of the pitch. The one time Assou-Ekotto lost out to Di Maria however, he was punished with a fierce shot that led to Madrid's third goal and all but finished the game there and then.

William Gallas was not on full fitness for the match and that showed in his performance although it was not a poor match for him by anyone's standards. His partner at the back, Michael Dawson, was again a solid rock for Spurs, bravely holding off Real Madrid's constant onslaughts regularly.

While the score line and many of the stats tell a different story, many of the Tottenham players put in some very brave performances while up against the odds in the clash.

Tottenham will now need to win the second leg at White Hart Lane either 4-0 to take the match up into added time, or by a five-goal margin to win it there and then. Most fans, pundits and experts will have written off Spurs, but having had such a fairytale run so far, there's no doubt far more of the story to come.

Perhaps the Tottenham fairytale story isn't meant to end with a run to the Champions League final though, and instead it ends the first chapter in a bright future for the team. Were Tottenham to be knocked out in the quarter-finals, as is largely expected now, then it would give them the chance to focus solely on the Premier League, where before the European matches had no doubt been playing on the players minds.

If Tottenham can maintain their focus now, and set one goal until the end of the season, it could be the very realistic target of fourth place. Manchester City have not looked quite as strong recently, and with a late match coming up at Eastland's at the end of May, Spurs fans could be licking their lips at the prospect of a repeat of the club's most memorable night from the 2009-10 Premier League season.

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