Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Ajax

16,000 seats allocated to Liverpool and Spurs each. Stadium holds 68,000. Say what? Who gets the other 36,000?

 

A little bit back to normal feels like concussion bit I'll be ok

 

erm, poch did change things early. He sent on llorente at half time

 

When you need to win by three goals in one half you need a much riskier approach so of course he had to change things. That is rarely the case.

 

I may be in a minority here but I like the idea that Cup Finals should be a celebration of the game that neutral grass roots fans can go to alongside fans of the clubs involved. There are over 50 national associations in UEFA and why shouldn't they have say 500 tickets each? People complain about 'suits' but there is little evidence that non football fans get tickets. If you've spent all your life running football in say, Albania why shouldn't you get a night out in Madrid.

 

I would like to like and hate this post, so on balance it is probably bang-on.

 

Given that in terms of general play, the 1st/2nd half of each leg were
nearly the same, you could argue that Pochettino took a big risk in repeating
the setup for the 1st half of the 2nd leg, as :

1. we could have been 3-0 down / 4-0 on aggregate at HT
2. and unlikely to score that many without reply in one half

 

Sorry a bit late to the party

Well done Spurs - that was quite a game

Good luck in the final

 

Yes, but the real reason we think the first halves were bad is that we conceded goals and didn't score any, And with some slight changes in luck the opposite would be true and everyone would be saying what a good tactical plan we had. My point is that goals are very infrequent events and are not a good indicator of whether tactics are right. They are, however, the only indicator of who wins the match so I can see why people react as they do.
Personally I thought we played quite well in the first half on Wednesday with little luck, while everything went our way in the second half where we played superbly.

 

Games can hinge on such small margins. - a bit of luck, a terrible mistake a flash of brilliance, a bad decision. Our second goal is pretty illustrative. We're on top and they were rocking. We opened them up completely and Llorente has an unmissable chance and just like against Watford, he fails to put it in the net.

That moment could have killed our momentum. For some reason, I was sure that, as so often in cricket, "one would get us two'. Ultimately, it did but only following the keeper panicking and making a hash of getting his hands on the ball. Take that moment away and his later decision to waste time so a further minute was added and......Well, who knows?

Cup football can be about luck or belief or just a few moments of genius....some days, it's your day, some days it isn't. I'd say that the one thing that seems to have dropped with this team is the need to never, never, never give up. In the second half of last season's FA Cup semi-final, there was nothing to suggest any belief or fight or hope....I haven't seen that too much this season. Even crippled by injuries and Sonny's absence, we took Chelsea to penalties in the League Cup.

 

The lack of control in CM is what I considered bad in those halves
(ie the inability to influence both of the above either way) , and not
the actual goal counts (although they were a summary statement of that) .

 

And that is a perfectly reasonable opinion. However, I don't think we won the second half because we controlled the midfield. Two of our goals more or less bypassed the midfield completely.

 

Yeah we were lucky

I don't know how many of you have kicked a ball but you make your own luck in this game and it usually happens to co incide with the intensity you apply.

First half was poor because we weren't doing ourselves justice and that's criminal

Plus I don't agree with spreading tickets out to citizens of Wakanda, just because it's nice to. The authorities are ****ing appalling splitting the tickets the way they have for the two sets of fans.

 

We definitely were not 'lucky'. But we could have played exactly the same way and still lost. That's all I am saying. And I agree that the more intensity we play with, the better we will do. But I thought we were just as intense in the first half, just with a different outcome.

 

True...that's why psychology for me is everything. I said after the first leg that Ajax are beatable...I felt as though so long as we are in it...the further the game goes the nervier the little Bambinos will get. That's why the first half made me angry...very angry...I felt we weren't doing ourselves justice. I guess Harry Kane agrees with me hence him losing his **** in the dressing room.

Second half we did ourselves justice. They were cocky...they were coming off the pitch smiling and winking...that pissed me off even more. I'm so glad we sent them smug little ****s back to school in the 2nd half. They relaxed...we destroyed them. When we relax then we usually lose.

It's in the head...likewise with the final...it's a one off...blood, sweat, tears and hunger and we are almost there because Poch will do his tactical homework no doubt.

 

Once the squad (and Dembele) have been sorted, whether it be with a silver or gold medal, we definitely owe Nick Viergever one if there's any left!

IF we manage to win it, Viergever will be a Spurs legend and he never even put on our shirt.

 

Why? Am I missing something?