CityVP Manjit

4 years ago · 5 min. reading time · 0 ·

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The Intolerable Cruelty of Shattered Dreams

The Intolerable Cruelty of Shattered Dreams

THE INTOLERABLE CRUELTY OF SHATTERED DREAMS : CityVP Manjit

As a Tottenham fan, the last second winner from Lucas Moura that completed a remarkable come back to book Spurs their first Champions League final in Madrid is certainly the headliner that capped a crazy week of football, but there is a side to this game, these moments that deserves a little attention.  That attention is that incredible Ajax Amsterdam team of 2019, youngsters who crushed Real Madrid away, went to the hostile environments of Juventus and beat another giant team that was expected themselves to reach the final and then went to Tottenham and won at their home ground.

Who could count against these brave and talented youngsters when the only team in Champions League history who came back from a 1-0 home loss in the first leg was Ajax themselves.  For Tottenham that 1-0 home loss also equated with their own history of never having come back to win after losing 1-0 at home in any of the European competitions.  Spurs have won European trophies before but the closest they came to the European Cup was a 1962 semi-final defeat by Benfica. Benfica went on to lose to Real Madrid in that final and have never won a final since the infamous curse of Bella Guttman.  Yet even a curse that lasts half a century pales in comparison to having done everything right and being 5 seconds away from writing the next chapter in the Ajax Amsterdam 2019 fairy-tale story.

The fans of Ajax Amsterdam were already thinking of the final in Madrid at half-time.  The football commentators had written off Tottenham and could not contemplate what would eventually occur in the final quarter of this amazing game.  It is not just that Lucas Moura scored but as De Ligt tried to engage a last ditch tackle, the ball got deflected to the right side of the goal and that defensive touch was enough to get it past the Ajax goalkeeper.  Fans who were counting down the last seconds of the match were left with their heads in the hand - eyes bewildered - bodies frozen from the utter shock of a goal scored just as 5 minutes of injury time were played.  Tottenham had five injury minutes to rescue the game and after Vertonghen hit the cross bar and then Llorente shot over the bar, even the most optimistic of Tottenham fans could see Spurs winning - but they did and that was a moment that was unbelievable - a miraculous moment in a great game.

People will forget that Hugo Lloris made an important save at 2 minutes of injury time and Dusan Tadic tried a curling shot into the top corner on the resulting rebound from the save.  Had those two players been more clinical, it would have been game over for Spurs - but sometimes luck is a reward for persistence.  After a 1-0 loss and going in at half-time by a further 2 goals, the Spurs players entered the dressing room with what what seemed insurmountable odds to rescue.  Down came their injured striker Harry Kane and Kane gave the speech of speeches - got into the minds of the Tottenham players - got into their heads that going out with honour is better than leaving Amsterdam in a whimper and maybe an even more worse beating.  Kane rather than Pochettino got into the souls of those Tottenham players - Pochettino is a manager of raw and honest emotion by all accounts remained calm at half-time and Captain Kane was enough to fire up the Tottenham team to engage a battling display.

Lucas Moura was a gift from now Arsenal manager Unai Emery when he sidelined Moura to just a handful of minutes in the PSG team.  Though Neymar had argued the case that Moura should not be sold, one thing Tottenham love is a cut price player to add to their back up subs team.  Yet even Spurs did not know what Neymar knew - that one can count on his talent and his heart.  Spurs did not know that for the first six months as Pochettino was getting Moura ready for the challenges of playing in the Premier League - but this is not the first time in this competition that Moura saved Spurs, it was Moura who scored the all important goal in Barcelona that got Spurs to squeak through the Group stages after securing only 1 point in the first three group games.  Moura was the last player Spurs have purchased and that now nearly two years ago.  Since then Unai Emery moved on from PSG to join Arsenal and Spurs have benefited from his gift!



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Comments

CityVP Manjit

4 years ago #1

#2
So long as Spurs win. Dreams are what they are when they meet realization.

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