With all else that is happening in and around White Hart Lane and the organisation that is Tottenham Hotspur, the forthcoming Olympics and some Brit riding his bicycle around France, it feels that the draw for the UEFA Europa League third round went largely un-heralded. And rightly so, some may argue. After all, who cares […]
So rise Black Knight
With all else that is happening in and around White Hart Lane and the organisation that is Tottenham Hotspur, the forthcoming Olympics and some Brit riding his bicycle around France, it feels that the draw for the UEFA Europa League third round went largely un-heralded.
And rightly so, some may argue. After all, who cares Georgian cup-winners FC Dila Gori could meet Anothorsis Famagusta – who qualified via a peculiar play-off system in Cyprus – in the next round? It’s a tin-pot cup right? Too many games and not enough prestige. I beg to differ at this point. A quick scan of the teams who have already assembled does read like a “Who’s who” of European football, albeit some of the named have lost their lustre over the years. Of course, the aforementioned Cypriots visited the Lane in 2007 and were promptly taken to the cleaners before almost causing a scare in the return leg.
This is not a reference to the teams from San Marino, Wales or Malta who – no offence intended – were never going to put up much resistance and did not see their countries’ representation carry to the second qualifying round. No. There are already some eye-wateringly tough teams milling about testing (and being tested by) the relative minnows. Young Boys of Bern, for example – Spurs’ Champions League opponents in the play-off round of 10/11 – are facing Zimbru Chisinau of Moldova, themselves seasoned European campaigners, who – lest we forget – Spurs ran into during their short-lived 1999/2000 UEFA Cup campaign.
Also in the second-round mix are such fallen giants as Rapid Bucharest, Slovan Bratislava, FC Twente, Hajduk Split and former European Champions Red Star Belgrade – all of whom have faced Tottenham Hotspur in one form of European Competition or another down the years. The new money of Anzhi Makhachkala also creeps in among these one-time-big-fish.
Soon it gets interesting however. In the third round, some juggernauts hove into view. Four former European Champions in Liverpool, Inter Milan, Marseille and Steuea Bucharest all await the second-round victors – with Lazio and Newcastle United lurking in the play-off round to finish off any stragglers.
Unbelievably, teams may have had to play up to eight games to reach the draw for the group stage of the competition. Their prize? Four teams stand at the end pre-destined to sit atop the seedings for the group stage draw and these will be the goal of the Differdange 03s and Lech Poznans of the second round – these four represent their ‘cup final’.
One name stands out among the four, seemingly out of place in the context of recent European endeavours and last year’s 4th-place in the Premier League. Tottenham Hotspur stands in a manner akin to the Black Knight of literature, none of the other entrants will want to be drawn with the conquerors of both Milans and all will be wary that the north Londoners have something of a point to prove in the shadow of the anti-football that sees them compete in the 2012/13 Europa League.
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3 Comments
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29/07/2012 @ 8:13 pm
The thinking of whether we can afford the blood, sweat and tears of going full-throttle into this competition, with the ultimate aim of winning it, or playing the reserves, thus saving energy and tired legs, for the more prized Champions’ League entry will be interesting. AVB has already steered Porto to success, but what do we think? Harry Redknapp wasn’t interested in the Europa, and we held onto 4th spot, unfortunately, Chelski fluked it and won CL, so they qualified from a well deserved 6th place. I would go the Redknapp route, as that tends to mean more prestige, better players wanting to play for Spurs and more money!
29/07/2012 @ 9:17 pm
I don’t think I’ve changed my view of this competition; it’s a distraction. Our aim is fourth place or above, and winning this comes way below that. I hope we are going to work out a way of playing a variety of fringe players in the early stages, and keep ourselves on track to put more effort into the competition if necessary. Even so, my guess is we have as much chance of winning the FA or worthless cups as the Europa, and for less effort. So, if we need an insurance policy, they are the ones to go for. I’m rather more interested also, for the moment in getting a good playmaker and a quality striker … without them we’ll win nothing.
30/07/2012 @ 6:15 am
AVB has a squad ethos and we should be able to handle this by using the squad. harry had a first elen and a very distant “second” eleven. This was quite stupid as the game is abaout squads(ask MC & RM). By carefully and constantl;y rotating we should be capable of manging both.
However that assumes that we have TWO decent strikers and as we haven’t really even ONE who can lead the line(both defoe & Kane are not this kind IMHO) I am becomiong quite concerned as SOMEONE has to score the goals and we have virtually no one.