The occasion of European knockout football can either be a
magical night which could live long in the memory or they can turn into a
nightmare, and last night in Tottenham’s case the latter looked to be true. In the
space of less than 10 minutes Italian champions Juventus shot into the lead
with a brace from Gonzalo Higuaín and the situation looked to be going south
with the Old Lady poised to pick the visitors off on the counter.
Higuaín narrowly
missed out on a chance to secure a hat trick and from there what followed was
one of the most spectacular away performances from Spurs as they pulled a goal
back afterwards and leveled matters later on. From that performance you can
observe that Spurs now look like a proper Champion’s League side as not only
did they survive, but they thrived in one of the most hostile grounds to visit in
European football.
Ever since Juventus’
move to the Allianz stadium only one team has ever managed to win in Turin in
the Champion’s League, that was Bayern Munich back in 2013 when they lifted the
trophy, Spurs can consider their away draw as good as a win especially because
the homeside don’t make a habit of conceding goals as Spurs along with
Sporting, Monaco and Lyon are the only teams to score at Juventus over the last
two seasons combined in European football.
On closer
inspection you’d also realize that Barcelona, once boasting the attacking
talents of Messi, Suarez and Neymar, lost 3-0 there last season and in their
return they couldn’t find the net either even after having outplayed the
Bianconeri at the Nou Camp earlier on.
An even more
impressive statistic is that between 2012 and 2018 only five teams, excluding
Spurs, have scored two or more goals against the Old Lady in the Champion’s
League. All this goes to tells you how formidable an opponent the Italians are
and how good Tottenham had to be in order to stage a fightback leaving them
well poised for the return leg at Wembley.
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