| Glory, glory... |
Anyone who paid attention to Inter's situation in the lead up to last night's game, will not have been wholly surprised by this result. They have a string of first team players out injured, including four centre-backs and their top-scorer, Diego Milito. This forced manager Andrea Stramaccioni to call up 6 youth team players to last night's squad. It also meant Stramaccioni had no choice but to start Antonio Cassano, whom he had a training ground spat with last week. Cassano was left out of Inter's last Serie A game, and the club fined him €40,000 on Tuesday for his behaviour. Inter's recent form looked decent on paper, but they had to produce a miracle second-half performance last weekend, to turn around a 2-0 deficit against lowly Catania in Sicily.
In the preview to this game, I mentioned that Stramaccioni's comments prior to the match suggested that he wasn't fully focused on the Europa League, and with such a depleted squad, he felt they needed to put all of their efforts into securing a Champions League spot for next season. All in all Inter looked weak going into this first-leg, and on our recent form, I always felt there was a chance we could effectively put the tie to bed last night. And so it proved. Take nothing away from our boys though, you can only play what's in front of you, and they put Inter to the sword. It actually could have been four or five, but let's not get greedy.
There was one disappointment in last night's otherwise glorious performance. We all know what I'm talking about. Bale's yellow card. His fourth booking for simulation this season. It means Gareth will miss the second-leg in the San Siro, where he scored that ridiculous hat-trick two years ago. But more than that, it was sad to see. Regardless of what I may have Tweeted at the time (drunkenly), it wasn't a penalty, and you couldn't blame the ref for showing the yellow. I want to give Gareth the benefit of the doubt, and say he just tripped over, but it did look like a dive. Don't hurt me!
But let's not talk any more about that. Let's talk about our three goals, one of which was inevitably scored by the boy himself. We took the lead after just 6 minutes when Sigurdsson whipped in a beautiful cross from the left-wing and Bale shook off Esteban Can't-be-assed-o to head it in to the bottom corner. The boy is on a frankly ludicrous run of form!
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| UnbelievaBALE...again! |
We doubled our advantage in the 18th minute after a good move. Dembele played the ball out right to Lennon who squared to Defoe. Defoe's shot was saved by the constantly busy Handanovic, but Sigurdsson was in the right place, and tapped in the rebound. I've been very critical of Siggy since we signed him, but I have to admit that he put in a very good shift on the left-wing last night, setting up the first goal and scoring the second. Our third was scored by last Sunday's MVP, Jan Vertonghen, who powerfully headed in a Gareth Bale corner in the 53rd minute. And that was that, total and utter dominance from start to finish. Like I said before, it could have been more. Vertonghen missed a great chance shortly before he scored, Defoe went close with a well-struck shot, and there were more that I can't quite recall right now, but yeah, we stuffed them.
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| SuperJan flys high to put us 3-0 up! |
The way we approached this match reminded us once again that AVB views this competition as a top priority, just like qualifying for next season's Champions League. And why wouldn't he? There's no substitute for silverware. My eyes have seen the glory...
Right, Player Ratings. I'm feeling pretty tender today, so these might be quite short.
Friedel - 7 Can't really give him a higher rating as he had barely anything to do. Saved well from Palacio to deny Inter an away goal.
Walker - 7 Has looked sloppy in recent weeks, but was a lot tidier last night. Linked well with Aaron Lennon and offered an attacking threat. Sometimes this left Palacio with too much space, but luckily his pace allowed him to get back and deal with it.
Verts - 8 Looked very assured again at the back and scored a great header to make it 3-0. He did miss one glaring chance at the back post from a Bale cross, but he's a centre-back, so I'll cut him some slack!
Gallas - 6 I'm not a fan of Billy, and that's not going to change any time soon. He was okay last night. Distributed well and even made a surging run forward at one stage. Got caught flatfooted a few times in defence, luckily Inter were too useless to capitalise.
BAE - 8 Played well. Provided great support for Siggy down the left-wing and created a number of attacking opportunities. Looked solid in defence too, but wasn't tested very often.
Lennon - 8 Another good game. Constant attacking threat and played a key part in the second goal. Helped out defensively as usual. Picked up a worrying injury with 10 minutes to go. Will be a big loss, if he's missing for Sunday.
Dembele - 9 Back to his best. No sign of the knee injury he picked up at the weekend. Ran the show in the middle of the park with simple passes, and got forward often. Inter allowed him far too much time on the ball, and he made the most of it.
Parker - 8 Best performance in a long time. Defended well as usual, but also used the ball well. Carried it forward effectively and almost always found a teammate with his passes.
Siggy - 8 In my opinion, this was his best performance in a Spurs shirt. Looked very comfortable playing wide-left and worked well with BAE. Set up the first goal with a brilliant cross, and was in the right position to tap home the second.
Bale - 8 Another great showing from the man of the moment. Scored the first with a good header and looked threatening every time he got the ball. Also, put in a great ball for Vertonghen to head home for the third goal. Unfortunately, his performance was marred by another booking for simulation. Can't really defend him here as it did look like a dive. Will miss the second-leg in Milan. Good thing we're 3-0 up!
Defoe - 7 Unlike Adebayor, looked lively throughout and will be disappointed not to get on the score sheet. He had two great opportunities but was denied on both occasions by Handanovic. Still very frustrating when he elects to shoot from silly positions instead of giving an easy pass.
Subs
Livermore came on for Dembele in the 64th minute, and looked desperate to make an impact on the game. Tried to force a few passes and gave the ball away, but also made some good interceptions and worked hard defensively. Holtby came on for Siggy on 71 mins and didn't make much of an impact. He took one shot on from the edge of the box, but it deflected into the keeper's arms. Naughton came on for Lennon after 82 mins. Too little time to judge his performance.
Disagree with my ratings? Comment away!
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COYS!
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