I want Real Madrid
Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 12:33PM Champions League quarter-finals. Choke on that one.
To continue in the spirit of all things Glory Glory I'd rather not draw any of the bland teams that remain in the competition. By bland, I don't mean to be disrespectful to the likes of Schalke and Shakhtar. Even though you might actually fancy us to get past both of them as long as we scored away from home. Although neither are ties I would look forward to. I guess the fear here would be failure to progress against a less glamorous club.
Inter - been there dismantled that. Possibly a dangerous tie to play what with their renewed confidence and thoughts of revenge. Bored of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. Can you even believe we'd ever think that?
What of Manchester United and Chelsea? English clubs. That's reason enough to avoid them in this débutante Champions League season of ours. I'd rather continue with the glitz and glam, what with the unnerving possibility that we might not be back next season (we will be IMO) but for the sake of the present day - I wouldn't want to look back with regret that we could have played 'X' team in the quarters and instead got a team we know very well from domestic duties.
United have a hex over us. Chelsea are hardly dead, just sleeping. It would be a massive anti-climax for us to go out to either of them. I'd rather be spanked silly by Barcelona. Which is why in my wildest dreams we don't play them until the semi-finals (look, I did cite wildest dreams there so enough with the thoughts of delusions).
In a suicidal way I'd love us to play Barca. I'd hardly be gutted about it. This is Spurs, eternal strugglers for the Top 4, finally making it to the promised land. Why would any supporter not want to see us go toe to toe with the best club side in recent memory, possibly one of the finest footballing sides ever?
What's that? 10-0 to the Catalans you say? Would Barca release a DVD?
A Glory Glory night under the floodlights in deepest North London hosting a tie against the Spanish champions and their assortment of World Cup winners and the best player in the world or Manchester United with Howard Webb?
Exactly. So back to that wild dream, and a visit to the Camp Nou in the semi-final.
So that leaves us (me) with one team to face in the quarter-final. That other club from Spain. The also-rans of La Liga. Jose and Ronaldo. One or two other half-decent players in their squad too. The Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. The White Storm v The Lilywhites. Fantasy football, right? Up against a team that plays in all white against a team that plays in all white in Europe. Now that would be glamour. A clash of attack in Madrid and London.
Now in a pragmatic universe, you'd probably want Schalke in the QF's and a hard fought win over two legs. You would really not care who we played after that point. The objective being one of statement of progression.
In my universe, I'm floating on top of a sea of romantic notions and the best possible next chapter in this fantastical journey. It's not about the stage of the competition, it's about the quality of the competition.
Deep down, it probably really doesn't matter, does it? We're in the quarter-finals. It's the end game. It's where the standard of football goes up a notch so mistakes become more punishable teams are more ruthless and cunning. And offensively you can't afford to dither and hoof. We've gone further than most expected. There is no failure from aiming high. So we may as well. All we require from the team is that same spirit, belief and guile that finds us where we currently stand tall.
It's with the Gods now. I pray the balls in the pot are not too warm.
Second leg at home please.
Reader Comments (77)
You got your wish.
Could have kept yr mouth shut bloody jinx : )
I'd apologise, but wait and see how it plays out. Don't want to waste words ;)
Spooky by name, Spooky by nature... Great call mate tho would have preferred Barca in the Final but Wembley be a good place to lift the Manyoooooor jinx COYS!!!!
wonderful lucky article, bet you are beaming after that COYS
Gold Cup winner next please Spooky.
Another Glory Glory night for the Lillywhites.
Fantastic quarter-final draw, shitty semi-final draw.... glass half full or half empty?
So back to the daily grind..... thrash the Hammers on Saturday pleeeeeeeeesssssssseeeeeeeeeee !!
Man United fan here.
Congrats on the draw. You got what I wanted for us. Lucky bastards.
I enjoy watching Spurs and wish you all the best. Predict you lot and Shakhtar will make it through to the semis.
Fuckin hate Cheslea - ugly manager, ugly players, ugly ground, ugly football! And we have to suffer the sight of them twice a year anyway!
Anyway, kudos Spooky - on the prediction and the blog. Excellent stuff.
Can you please provide tonight's EuroMillions numbers......
Obviously only email them to me though as I don't want to share that much with all my fellow yids!
Good to see that Easyjet have made the most of it already - flights normally £70 each way are now £450 out, £300 back!
ginger - thanks for the kind words. You do know if we meet you in the final Howard Webb wont be able to officiate? ;) Hope you dick Chelsea.
I'm actually going to go play the lottery now. Soz, can't share the numbers.
Wish granted and I have to agree
Just as long as it isn't Martin Atkinson, or Phil Dowd.
Was talking to my dad on the phone the night before you wrote this and he asked me the question - I said R.M for pretty much the reasons you stated. Great for our profile worldwide, and a side that you could just beat if things didn't go their way and we got a lead, there's some monster egos there and they might just implode. Anyway - we've got our wish in the draw.
COYS
Spooky knew.
Officially ITK.
YOu got your wish :-)
Will be interesting to see what Harry does with the fixtures around the Madrid games:
2nd April - Wigan (A)
5th April - Real (A)
9th April - Stoke (H)
12th April - Real (H)
Fortunately we don't have a game between West Ham & Wigan, but no doubt stand do lose at least 3 players due to injuries picked up on international duty.
We need to be picking up 6 points in the league games to pursue 4th place.
Oh and at least with City being in the FA semi, we have an 8 day break between Real & Arsenal.
BOYCOTT INTERNATIONAL BREAK
Amazing
Just amazing
Here it is again, in case you missed it
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR VS REAL MADRID
Champions League Quarter-Final 2011
Never in my wildest dreams did i imagine this happening in my lifetime, let alone my twenties (i'm 29!)
These ties will be the epitome of the beautiful game...
I fucking love you Spurs!!!
Spurs v. Real at the Lane. I cannot wait, but I fear the away fixture will be an immense struggle.
Ask and ye shall receive. Now next up, Cheltenham Gold Cup, Euromillions and Fergie gift wrapped and delivered to my house (that's Fergie from BEP, not the red nosed manager or the ginger royal).
Christmas could indeed come early.
You must be dead chuffed, Spooky! I certainly am, 'cos we've got nothing to lose now. A fab draw, can't wait!
I've just been amusing myself reading "Marca" (Spanish, pro-Real sports paper) and it shows us huge respect. Even better is the 200 comments after the article, mostly Madridistas, a few Barça and one glorious Yiddo (not me). They are already scared for Sergio Ramos against Bale, they all love Modders, big love for Rafa (still) and .........Wilson!!! Not one mentions the mighty Sandro, although the article said he is "immense" and "IRREPLACEABLE"!!!!
So guys, you see? They're almost running scared of us!
COYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Real is definitely do-able with the second leg at home. Then probably Barca with the 2nd leg away, holy shit, I'm hoping this "year-ends-in-one" luck holds some friggin weight for that one!
COYS!
'It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.’
1-1 at the Bernabeu and 2-0 at the Lane. COYS!
Bilbao is still £30 each way and a 4 hour drive to Madrid...
Looking forward to the sight of Ronaldo smacking into The Wall repeatedly. And I don't mean in his Ferrari.
To the Bernabéu!
Initially wanted Schalke but you got me round to thinking maybe, just maybe this is what Spurs need. To do it the hard way..
Hey, we have Sandro so anything is possible.
Boys and girls, I love you all. You are my brothers and sisters. God bless you all.
I won't even apologise for that last sentence, today is an emotional day and I meant it.
oooooh wheeeeen the Spuuuuuuuurrssss.......goooo marchiiiiiing iiiinnnnnnnnn......
Yehh baby! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !