CL Round of 16 - Spurs vs. Milan match thread

Fellaini is far better in the air than Crouch!

He's not white!
Look at his hair.

TITO wrote:Well, to be honest, half of those fouls called against Crouch were unfair. Yes, he uses his hands, but the way the Milan players were positioning themselves he couldn't do much.
And his main problem is that: White Men Can't Jump.

Crouch got manhandled to fuck as well, and yet the ref almost always blew against him.

It was pretty ridiculous, but then I don't believe we play our best football when we rely on him constantly, and it ain't the first time the ref was taking a hardline view.

He should have come off much earlier tonight when it was clear Milan players were going to either foul him or play for a foul and the ref went with it.

Still laughing at Bobo's insistence we played shit on a stick football and comparing us to Arsenal, who had 0 shots last night, whilst we clearly had a number of shots and potential goal scoring opportunities in the second half.

3-1

Red n' Black wrote:Well, we had our chances and considering the team we had available I'm quite pleased with the performance - overall over two legs I believe either team could have gone through. Congrats to the Spurs for two good performances.

Now all those ignorant media dumbasses regurgitating the same old bullshit "Milan are old, slow, in decline, yadda yadda yadda" - I'll be laughing my ass out in the coming years.

The fact of the matter is that over ONE single season our squad has been upgraded both in quality and quantity (with players like Cassano, Ibra, Robinho, Boateng, Van Bommel, Sokratis, Emanuelson, etc) and is basically being renewed (players like Silva, Pato, Abate, Flams, Boateng, Emanuelson, Sokratis, Robinho, Cassano, Merkel, Strasser all in their mid or early 20s).

Now, if we go by the constant press reports that there is indeed a project in place and that rebuilding will continue this summer, then I would assume that the main problem areas we have at FB and midfield will be addressed. Allegri is a great coach, I hope he stays for a long time as I'm pretty certain he can win a bunch of titles as soon as the rebuilding is complete.

Cheers. The Milan performance in the first half was superb. We were chasing shadows. I think on the balance of play over 2 legs we just about proved worthy, but as you said, could have gone either way.

I don't think we'll play that badly again this season as we did in that first half. Not good. Second half was better, before peatering out at the end.

Milan will be back next season. We may not, so we'll have to enjoy it as much as we can. Bring on Barca

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:EPL teams are anti football

Good god you're boring.

Spurs didn't park the bus...Milan just weren't good enough to exert any real pressure.

They exerted pressure all game. Just Robinho/Pato wasted their chances.

51% possession. Wow. Sure they were the more attacking team, and I thought they could've drawn level before half time. But in the second half, they really did very little. Spurs were fine.

Milan had 58% possession (http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/matches/season=2011/round=2000119/match=2003762/postmatch/statistics/index.html).

They created enough clear cut chances to have won the game. Like i said, poor finishing cost them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/9417468.stm

Just depends how you calculate.
What you're saying basically, is that if Milan were better at football, they would have won. I agree. Unfortunately, Spurs were better at football and consequently won.

The amount of times Milan launched attacks in the second half that didn't get anywhere - it wasnt a backs to the wall performance from spurs nor parking the bus, it was a controlled defensive performance.

I'll go with the official UEFA figures rather than some biased British news site

You can call it a controlled defensive performance if it makes you happy. It was still shit on a stick anti football, similar to what Arsenal did last night.

Whatever, try and take the high ground. I'll go with the 58% for the sake of it - look at the the context though. A team chasing a lead for all the game, jeez, i'd expect 58% possession at least.
Milan exerted nothing like the dominance Barca did yesterday, and you seem to have forgotten the first half of the first leg when Tottenham dominated Milan. No one called it shit on the stick football then because it's not. Merely one team dominating the other due to some reason.

So the chasing team automatically get more possession?

As far as i remember, Barca were not exactly pelting Arsenal's goal with shots when it was 11 vs 11.

Spurs had 46% possession at the San Siro, and you want to claim Tottenham dominated Milan?

congrats to spurs, you play football the way i like and i'm ecstatic they are in the next round.

I dislike milan for obvious reasons, but they are a season away from being back big time, ibra being shit in europe is a real problem now and one that cannot be looked over anymore though.

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:EPL teams are anti football

Good god you're boring.

Spurs didn't park the bus...Milan just weren't good enough to exert any real pressure.

They exerted pressure all game. Just Robinho/Pato wasted their chances.

51% possession. Wow. Sure they were the more attacking team, and I thought they could've drawn level before half time. But in the second half, they really did very little. Spurs were fine.

Milan had 58% possession (http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/matches/season=2011/round=2000119/match=2003762/postmatch/statistics/index.html).

They created enough clear cut chances to have won the game. Like i said, poor finishing cost them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/9417468.stm

Just depends how you calculate.
What you're saying basically, is that if Milan were better at football, they would have won. I agree. Unfortunately, Spurs were better at football and consequently won.

The amount of times Milan launched attacks in the second half that didn't get anywhere - it wasnt a backs to the wall performance from spurs nor parking the bus, it was a controlled defensive performance.

I'll go with the official UEFA figures rather than some biased British news site

You can call it a controlled defensive performance if it makes you happy. It was still shit on a stick anti football, similar to what Arsenal did last night.

Whatever, try and take the high ground. I'll go with the 58% for the sake of it - look at the the context though. A team chasing a lead for all the game, jeez, i'd expect 58% possession at least.
Milan exerted nothing like the dominance Barca did yesterday, and you seem to have forgotten the first half of the first leg when Tottenham dominated Milan. No one called it shit on the stick football then because it's not. Merely one team dominating the other due to some reason.

So the chasing team automatically get more possession?

As far as i remember, Barca were not exactly pelting Arsenal's goal with shots when it was 11 vs 11.

Spurs had 46% possession at the San Siro, and you want to claim Tottenham dominated Milan?

Read my post bobo, I referred to the first half. Simples. Don't know if you missed this deliberately, or because it suited your agenda.
Your first point really makes no sense. I'll refine my point, you're welcome, I see it as charity work. A chasing team is more likely to have more possession as they defending team are more inclined to sit deeper, thus allowing the chasing team's midfield to control the game. Barcelona are clearly an exception to this, for obvious reasons.
Not entirely sure how Barca's shots has anything to do with any point i've made but

Messiah wrote:congrats to spurs, you play football the way i like and i'm ecstatic they are in the next round.

I dislike milan for obvious reasons, but they are a season away from being back big time, ibra being shit in europe is a real problem now and one that cannot be looked over anymore though.

Agreed. Milan were underestimated in the first game, too much made of how poor they were. Although we played poorly tonight, it was down to Milan's urgency and flair. Shame (for them) Ibra slowed everything down.

If they play like that when they're not chasing a 1-0 and have nothing to lose, they'll be on the right track. Put it his way, they were far more impressive than their Champion neighbours in blue/black who came to White Hart Lane to play "shit-on-a-stick" Spurs and got royally rumbled. I wouldn't hold it against some of their fickler fans for choosing to switch allegiances

Noah and the Bale wrote:

Messiah wrote:congrats to spurs, you play football the way i like and i'm ecstatic they are in the next round.

I dislike milan for obvious reasons, but they are a season away from being back big time, ibra being shit in europe is a real problem now and one that cannot be looked over anymore though.

Agreed. Milan were underestimated in the first game, too much made of how poor they were. Although we played poorly tonight, it was down to Milan's urgency and flair. Shame (for them) Ibra slowed everything down.

If they play like that when they're not chasing a 1-0 and have nothing to lose, they'll be on the right track. Put it his way, they were far more impressive than their Champion neighbours in blue/black who came to White Hart Lane to play "shit-on-a-stick" Spurs and got royally rumbled. I wouldn't hold it against some of their fickler fans for choosing to switch allegiances

Also shameful how Robinho kept choking on his own c0ck everytime a good chance fell his way.

Noah and the Bale wrote:I wouldn't hold it against some of their fickler fans for choosing to switch allegiances

all hail mighty spurs, how decently a team lose to them is the yardstick of football prestige in Milano already

Noah and the Bale wrote:

Messiah wrote:congrats to spurs, you play football the way i like and i'm ecstatic they are in the next round.

I dislike milan for obvious reasons, but they are a season away from being back big time, ibra being shit in europe is a real problem now and one that cannot be looked over anymore though.

Agreed. Milan were underestimated in the first game, too much made of how poor they were. Although we played poorly tonight, it was down to Milan's urgency and flair. Shame (for them) Ibra slowed everything down.

If they play like that when they're not chasing a 1-0 and have nothing to lose, they'll be on the right track. Put it his way, they were far more impressive than their Champion neighbours in blue/black who came to White Hart Lane to play "shit-on-a-stick" Spurs and got royally rumbled. I wouldn't hold it against some of their fickler fans for choosing to switch allegiances

It's true we were much better tonight than during the first leg; basically our team's main problem (apart from no reliable left-back) is the lack of creativity/technique in midfield. We have destroyers, runners but very few creative/technical players (it feels weird saying this, as in the past this is what we had in abundance). Essentially, we have only two creative players in midfield plus also Cassano who can play in the hole, but not his favoured position:

Pirlo (moved out of the deep-lying playmaker spot under Allegri and used as a more advanced central midfielder)

Seedorf (plays more bad games than good ones these days, though today he played very well)

plus two midfielders who are comfortable on the ball(but you would not define as creative outlets):

Boateng

Merkel


In the San Siro we played

----------------------Thiago Silva----------------
--------------Flamini------------Gattuso----------
------------------------Seedorf-----------


whereas today we had

--------------------Seedorf------------
-------------Flamini-----------Boateng------
--------------------Robinho------------


In a very simplistic way, more technique/ball playing ability. In the first leg, due to lack of alternatives, a natural CB was played at DM, whereas today Clarence took that role(obviously far superior at building up play). And this actually kinda suited him, because he had more time on the ball compared to the first game when he was played further forward and couldn't escape the attentions of Palacios.

Also, with Gattuso out you do lose some bite in midfield, but Boateng is another player who is comfortable on the ball, can drive the ball forward and can also work defensively. These are elements which we did not have in the first leg, as with Gattuso-Flams-Silva in midfield, there really isn't that much you can do going forward.

Obviously, we do need a natural attacking midfielder plus another all around CM, comfortable in both phases of the game, in order to truly have a competent midfield again. Allegri has won over the management, so I'm hoping that they give him what he requires this summer, as I truly believe that this coach can do big things in Milan.

Red n' Black wrote:
It's true we were much better tonight than during the first leg; basically our team's main problem (apart from no reliable left-back) is the lack of creativity/technique in midfield.

Is Didac Vila playing for you yet?

Jaime wrote:

Red n' Black wrote:
It's true we were much better tonight than during the first leg; basically our team's main problem (apart from no reliable left-back) is the lack of creativity/technique in midfield.

Is Didac Vila playing for you yet?

Nota single minute yet, just a couple of trips to the bench - I'm curious to how good/promising he is as I've never seen him play.

It's strange cause basically both Zambrotta and Antonini were injured at some point, but Allegri went for Jankulovksi and then Emanuelson ahead of Didac; basically Allegri considers him the 5th choice at LB which kinda worries me

Red n' Black wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Red n' Black wrote:
It's true we were much better tonight than during the first leg; basically our team's main problem (apart from no reliable left-back) is the lack of creativity/technique in midfield.

Is Didac Vila playing for you yet?

Nota single minute yet, just a couple of trips to the bench - I'm curious to how good/promising he is as I've never seen him play.

It's strange cause basically both Zambrotta and Antonini were injured at some point, but Allegri went for Jankulovksi and then Emanuelson ahead of Didac; basically Allegri considers him the 5th choice at LB which kinda worries me

Didac is not a flashy left back but very reliable defensively and competent when he joins in the attack. And watching him over the last two seasons my impression is that he is always improving and can still get better yet. He's only 21 still I think. Hopefully he gets a chance eventually.

Jaime wrote:

Red n' Black wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Red n' Black wrote:
It's true we were much better tonight than during the first leg; basically our team's main problem (apart from no reliable left-back) is the lack of creativity/technique in midfield.

Is Didac Vila playing for you yet?

Nota single minute yet, just a couple of trips to the bench - I'm curious to how good/promising he is as I've never seen him play.

It's strange cause basically both Zambrotta and Antonini were injured at some point, but Allegri went for Jankulovksi and then Emanuelson ahead of Didac; basically Allegri considers him the 5th choice at LB which kinda worries me

Didac is not a flashy left back but very reliable defensively and competent when he joins in the attack. And watching him over the last two seasons my impression is that he is always improving and can still get better yet. He's only 21 still I think. Hopefully he gets a chance eventually.

I'm sure he'll get a chance at some point - as you said still very young and if he impresses then Allegri will not have any qualms about playing him often. He has no issues with trusting/playing youngsters: Merkel and Strasser (to a lesser extent) have made the jump from the Primavera this season and already made a number of starts under Allegri in all three competitions.

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:EPL teams are anti football

Good god you're boring.

Spurs didn't park the bus...Milan just weren't good enough to exert any real pressure.

Incredibly, this comment comes from an Inter Milan fan too.

COTR wrote:Glad Spurs got through although you can see now why T/S has been driven to distraction by Crouch ruining a potentially very good team. Gallas and Sandro were immense.

Milan played some great stuff to watch but the front three really do not earn their money do they

Good match despite the lack of goals

I tried to give up getting angry at Crouch over lent.

FAIL

Delighted we got through, but in a way I'm glad it was in this manner - we showed another side out our game this European campaign. It kinda shuts up the people who peddle the "Spurs are too cavalier and naive" theory.

Tottenham did exactly what Arsenal should have done last night.

Warren G

S4P wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:EPL teams are anti football

Good god you're boring.

Spurs didn't park the bus...Milan just weren't good enough to exert any real pressure.

Incredibly, this comment comes from an Inter Milan fan too.

Incredibly, this comment comes from a Chelsea fan.

Hlebagone wrote:Read my post bobo, I referred to the first half. Simples. Don't know if you missed this deliberately, or because it suited your agenda.

Why ignore the second half? If anything, you're the one who's being very selective to suit your agenda.

Your first point really makes no sense. I'll refine my point, you're welcome, I see it as charity work. A chasing team is more likely to have more possession as they defending team are more inclined to sit deeper, thus allowing the chasing team's midfield to control the game.

That might be the attitude of the anti football EPL shit on a stick teams like Spurs and Arsenal, but that doesn't hold true for everyone. Many teams will continue to dominate possession after they have taken the lead.

Not entirely sure how Barca's shots has anything to do with any point i've made but

I guess it's because you claimed Milan wern't exerting much pressure, and tried to back that up by saying that most of Milan's attacks ended in nothing. However, same could be said about Barca (when it was 11 vs 11), but in your mind that still equated to complete and utter dominance.

Neither team played shit on stick football. They played to their advantage. When you carry on a first leg lead, you try to defend that. That's how any tactically astute manager would set his team. But Bobo being brought up in Catenaccio land is probably warped up in meaningless nuances.

abundance wrote:

Noah and the Bale wrote:I wouldn't hold it against some of their fickler fans for choosing to switch allegiances

all hail mighty spurs, how decently a team lose to them is the yardstick of football prestige in Milano already

Forza Spurs!! When the Saints go marching in (to Wembley)!!!

I did not think Spurs had this game in them, the character to hold on for the result under extreme pressure... its an important skill to have, an option which can be very useful in competitions like the CL, as we saw yesterday specially in the first half. I seriously think Spurs have a shot at it now, it they can avoid Barca for the time being.

Its been a joy to watch Spurs in CL this season. Hope you go far.

And a final thanks to 'Appy 'Arry Redknapp for bestowing a precious 103rd Birthday Gift upon Internazionale!

I don't think us going out at this stage is really good for Inter to be honest; let's be honest, we said from the beginning of the season that we have no shot at the CL this year, so further progression into the competition would only diminish our chances in the league. Of course, as a fan you always want to progress and go as far as possible but the reality is that we are not ready yet to challenge for the CL.

Now we will be able to focus 100% domestically while continue to recover key players. At the same time I hope Inter go through and play a few more games

abundance wrote:

Noah and the Bale wrote:I wouldn't hold it against some of their fickler fans for choosing to switch allegiances

all hail mighty spurs, how decently a team lose to them is the yardstick of football prestige in Milano already

That quote was exclusively aimed at Bobo, who, despite having taken a lengthy break, appears to be as intent as ever on expelling wind from his ass at every opportunity where this game is concerned:

Bobo wrote:That might be the attitude of the anti football EPL shit on a stick teams like Spurs and Arsenal, but that doesn't hold true for everyone. Many teams will continue to dominate possession after they have taken the lead

Would a real Inter fan even attempt to continue peddling such terrible wind-up, given what happened in the group stages?

Unless he suffers amnesia, I can only conclude he must be a Milan fan now.

Fenomeno wrote:Neither team played shit on stick football. They played to their advantage. When you carry on a first leg lead, you try to defend that. That's how any tactically astute manager would set his team. But Bobo being brought up in Catenaccio land is probably warped up in meaningless nuances.

Spurs certainly didn't play to their advantage. Playing with pace and intensity is what they're good at. 10 men behind the ball and long balls up to Crouch isn't playing to their advantage.

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:

S4P wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:EPL teams are anti football

Good god you're boring.

Spurs didn't park the bus...Milan just weren't good enough to exert any real pressure.

Incredibly, this comment comes from an Inter Milan fan too.

Incredibly, this comment comes from a Chelsea fan.

Your comment has no meaning to it. Not that I expected anything less.

It's good to see you generalise and assume that 20 teams (i.e. the EPL) play shit on a stick football because of the performances of 4 teams in a couple of games. Perhaps you should watch some EPL teams play (Blackpool would be a good team to watch) before making such ridiculous statements.

Anyway, let's see how well your hypothesis holds up with the evidence. Tottenham are the top goalscorers in this seasons competition. They are perhaps the last team who you could conclude as playing 'shit on a stick' football.

And if you're talking purely about possession, Inter had (according to the same UEFA website you quoted for Spurs) only 45% possession in their match against Bayern Munich. So my response to you would be "Serie A teams are anti football".

S4P wrote:Your comment has no meaning to it. Not that I expected anything less.

Of course it does. Not that i expected you to understand it.

It's good to see you generalise and assume that 20 teams (i.e. the EPL) play shit on a stick football because of the performances of 4 teams in a couple of games. Perhaps you should watch some EPL teams play (Blackpool would be a good team to watch) before making such ridiculous statements.

Yes i'm sure the likes of Blackburn and Stoke play beautiful football in comparison to Arsenal and Spurs.

Anyway, let's see how well your hypothesis holds up with the evidence. Tottenham are the top goalscorers in this seasons competition. They are perhaps the last team who you could conclude as playing 'shit on a stick' football.

They played shit on a stick football last night.

And if you're talking purely about possession, Inter had (according to the same UEFA website you quoted for Spurs) only 45% possession in their match against Bayern Munich. So my response to you would be "Serie A teams are anti football".

Kevin was the one who brought up possession statistics, not me.

Fenomeno wrote:Neither team played shit on stick football. They played to their advantage. When you carry on a first leg lead, you try to defend that. That's how any tactically astute manager would set his team. But Bobo being brought up in Catenaccio land is probably warped up in meaningless nuances.

Catenaccio Land

Bigggest Bus Depot in the world

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:Spurs certainly didn't play to their advantage. Playing with pace and intensity is what they're good at. 10 men behind the ball and long balls up to Crouch isn't playing to their advantage.

It's shit to watch, but it's not deliberately defensive - these sorts of games just occur when Redknapp has a wet dream about Crouch the night before any given game. As COTR says, now Europe finally saw what I've been bitching about all season long.

So let me get this straight:

- We are an anti football EPL shit-on-a-stick football team because we played poorly in our first ever knock out round CL leg against a Milan side who came 1-0 down with nothing to lose and finally played to their potential, ignoring the other 7 games in the CL where we scored more than any other team in the competition and were applauded for our attacking, and often naive, style?

Logic!

Noah and the Bale wrote:That quote was exclusively aimed at Bobo

For the record, I share bluenine's feelings about Spurs' european season