Tottenham (2) v BSC Young Boys (3):TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR supporters can picture the scenario. It is the draw for the Champions League group stage in Monaco tomorrow and their team is in it.
They have to get one of Europe’s big guns from the first pot of seeds and there is a fair chance that it will be Barcelona, Real Madrid or the holders Internazionale. They cannot draw an English club. Excitement courses through the veins. It is 48 years since Spurs competed in the European Cup proper.
The manager, Harry Redknapp, meanwhile, is on the hunt for glamour signings. He confirmed yesterday he wanted Lassana Diarra; that his club’s chief scout had spoken to the Real Madrid midfielder’s representatives. Wages, however, might be a problem. “He’s on big, big wages at Real Madrid,” Redknapp said.
Then, there is Luis Fabiano, Brazil’s number one striker, who is said to be on the brink of a move from Sevilla. Redknapp poured cold water on this. But imagine if he could have the world-class target man to complete his exciting line-up?
Spurs fans are imagining. When you are so close to the Champions League group phase, it is easy to get carried away. But there is a potential hitch and, as Redknapp fielded questions about Luka Modric’s injury, Jonathan Woodgate’s make-or-break operation, his new signing William Gallas and Luis Fabiano, it was brought to his attention by a Swiss journalist.
“This press conference has been about everything to do with Tottenham but what about Young Boys?” he asked.
The Swiss Super League runners-up are an unheralded team who have the capacity to turn dreams to dust. They almost did that last Tuesday, in the first-leg, when they roared into a 3-0 lead on the plastic pitch at Stade de Suisse. When Ammar Jemal stood over a 35th-minute free-kick, on the edge of the Tottenham penalty area, Redknapp was watching through his fingers.
“You could see that left-footed guy putting it into the top corner for 4-0 and it was game over,” he said. “We got out of jail last week. No doubt.”
Goals from Sebastien Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko made the final score 3-2 and led Redknapp to talk about “a great defeat, if there is such a thing”. Tottenham are now the firm favourites to advance from tonight’s second leg at White Hart Lane.
Young Boys are not to be underestimated and there was the feeling that Tottenham might have done so last week. Redknapp’s scouts had watched them slump to a 1-0 home defeat to Neuchatel Xamax four days earlier – Neuchatel were bottom of the table – and the advice filtered back to go for the jugular.
“Maybe we set up too attacking over there, looking back on it,” Redknapp said. “It might have been a bit of a mistake. But on the reports, I thought we could go there and score so I thought ‘let’s have a go.’”
Young Boys had the chances to score a fourth before Pavlyuchenko’s crucial 83rd-minute goal and Tottenham were certainly chastened. But the sense at the club’s training ground yesterday was that they intended to make the most of their reprieve. If they were, Redknapp remarked, the team would not deserve to rub shoulders with the elite.
“In this position,” said the striker Jermain Defoe, “you don’t want to freeze like Everton did and then not get near it again. It’s a massive opportunity and I believe that when you get opportunities in life, you have to grab them.”
The scale of the tie is illustrated by the club’s decision to postpone a groin operation for Defoe until after the match. He has been carrying the problem since the World Cup and he will undergo surgery early next week. He will miss England’s Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland and, according to Redknapp, the subsequent Premier League fixtures against West Brom and Wolves.
Defoe offered a nice line about not wanting “to be at home watching EastEnders on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, you want to be at the Lane playing in massive European games” and he gave the impression that he was champing at the bit for the first whistle.
So are his team-mates, although Modric will not play because of his groin and hamstring pulls and Gallas is ineligible.
Tottenham hope to feed off the frenzy in the stands, to “swarm all over Young Boys from the start,” in the words of Redknapp. They can’t afford another slip-up.
Guardian Service
Venue: White Hart Lane Kick-off: 7.45pm On TV: RTÉ Two, UTV
