Tottenham Hotspur versus the Bianconeri, Wembley stadium, 7th of March 2018, 1945hrs kick off

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Do you mean that the VAR would ignore the blatant Juve fouls, but hone in on JV's?
The Rochdale game was notable for the huge waste of time with the decisions, but technically correct in all of the decisions.
Unpopular, but the letter of the law was applied
Yes. VAR would only have been used for Jan's pen as it was a clear and obvious error from the ref. It is not used for consistent/tactical fouling. (even the stamp as it wasn't a clear and obvious error from the ref).

I don't want get get drawn into the Rochdale farce, I've bored myself rigid in that thread but views all laid out which will get you off to sleep, better than counting sheep maybe.
 
For Vertonghen's foul it would have, not the shirt pull and not the Barzagli stamp as these were not "clear & obvious errors". Barzagli would be retrospectively banned by now had that been a PL game, but it wasn't, so he isn't.
UEFA are just waiting for the Qtr. Final draw to see which British club they get... then they'll decide whether retrospectively banning him will give City/Utd/Liverpool a decent enough advantage to warrent making a decision!
#justourluck
 
The thing with winning a trophy I keep hearing is that it breads that winning mentality within the squad, we will never have a better season to to win it either as the semi and final will be like home games. I always thought this season would be a write of due to playing at Wembley, But if we make top 3 and win the FA cup then I would see that as a very successful season!
The thing you mentioned about breeding a winning mentality - every single time I’ve heard an ex pro or present player be asked such a question, they’ve agreed it helps. I have never heard someone say “nah, it’s rubbish.”

However, this forum is full of people who insist it’s not the case.
 
IMO we didn't do anything wrong. Sitting deep at 1-1 or even 1-0 with a fair amount of time to go would have been a worse option. Look at how we played the last ten minutes against the scum. Nearly granted them a point in a game they had been totally outclassed in. We did the right thing to keep going forward and playing a high line, it was more likely to get us a second goal. It's a game of football against a high quality opposition, either team could have won it, both teams were going to have chances, they took theirs, over the course of the two games we were unlucky. End of.
 
Again I disagree, after you scored you didn't have control of the game, you sat deeper because you were forced to, we still got behind you (Son's chance also inches wide and loads of last ditched blocks). We regularly play against teams with zero ambition to win the game in the PL and we have been far more frustrated against Palace, Burnley, Chelsea, Bournemouth, WBA in all honesty they were better at it than you.

Yes you have the personnel to sit back and you are perhaps better prepared to do that, which is why I still maintain why we wouldn't chose to do that ourselves, not with this defence, if we had our best defence out on the pitch, primarily with Alderweireld (he is our Chiellini), if he was playing we would have/could have sat deep and played with 3 CB + 2 wingbacks just as we did in both games against BVB. But as I said to you earlier to do that and invite you onto us without Alderweireld would IMO have been suicide against Dybala, Higuaín et al.

I think over the two legs both teams rode they luck, your first goal in Turin was clearly offside but you missed a pen. At Wembley you should have had a penalty (Vertonghen on Costa) but so should we (Shirt pull on Vertonghen), you should also have had Barzagli sent off, if not a straight red card for his 3 stamps on Son, then for multiple yellow card fouls, same with a couple of your other players who were really fortunate not to see 2 yellows.

If I sound like a poor loser then so be it, I do know that you were extremely lucky to beat us, absolutely nothing will convince me otherwise. I have a lot of respect for Juve and whilst I know we are a hard side to beat, I wish that we possessed whatever it is that Juve have to get over the line, if that's called luck then I'll take it. If it's guile, knowhow, experience then that needs to be quantified because I didn't see that from you.

Guido I do not want to be right we have different opinions. I have nothing but respect for the Spurs and the way they played. You have an incredible team and for large parts of both legs you dominated the game, I disagree with regards to the last 20 minutes after Juve's goals, but that does not change the overall picture. BUT if a team dominates a game for over 100 minutes out of 180 and still concedes 4 goals that could have easily been many more, it cannot be down to luck. I believe Alderweid absence has been a factor but the second goal by Dybala is absolutely absurd in that situation. Higuain found an incredible pass but the fact tact he could do that and find Dybala behind the line at 40 mt from goal IMO is simply not right, it should not have happened and it was a tactical mistake that was obviously compounded by the not exceptional individual quality of your CBs.
On the bright side I think you have in your hands a very easily improvable team, which could become a dominant force in EPL and Europe provided you hold on your best players that are so young can only improve over the next couple of years.

With a couple more strong CBs and more experience, ditching Verthongen that is out of his depth at this level, I think the team is incredible. At least that is my opinion
 
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Finally forced myself to watch the highlights and Juve were fucking lucky. End of.
Don't wanna hear any bullshit about Allegri tactical genius, wily Juve, etc. Absolute bollocks.
Still very bitter about the result and reminds me of that bloody Chelsea semi last year.
No justice and I hate football sometimes.

And as for those so-called fans I saw leaving on 80 mins - I'm sorry, but you can fuck right off. The game could have always gone to (and almost did go to) extra-time so what are you leaving early for? Disgraceful fair-weather pussies. Like most, I stayed till the bitter end and got stuck in the crowd for well over an hour while you fucks sneaked off down Wembley Way so shit scared of having to wait for your poxy train. Wankers.
 
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Guido I do not want to be right we have different opinions. I have nothing but respect for the Spurs and the way they played. You have an incredible team and for large parts of both legs you dominated the game, I disagree with regards to the last 20 minutes after Juve's goals, but that does not change the overall picture. BUT if a team dominates a game for over 100 minutes out of 180 and still concedes 4 goals that could have easily been many more, it cannot be down to luck. I believe Alderweid absence has been a factor but the second goal by Dybala is absolutely absurd in that situation. Higuain found an incredible pass but the fact tact he could do that and find Dybala behind the line at 40 mt from goal IMO is simply not right, it should not have happened and it was a tactical mistake that was obviously compounded by the not exceptional individual quality of your CBs.
On the bright side I think you have in your hands a very easily improvable team, which could become a dominant force in EPL and Europe provided you hold on your best players that are so young can only improve over the next couple of years.

With a couple more strong CBs and more experience, ditching Verthongen that is out of his depth at this level, I think the team is incredible. At least that is my opinion

Verthongen who is human, been struggling with an injury and has been immense all season, sorry can't agree! I know what you're saying but a fair few of our players had off days, you could see that by how they were on the ball and nothing to do with the opposition. You won, we had a lapse of concentration but please don't patronise us.

Where we lacked experience is when you started to throw in niggling tackles, getting to the ref (look at Higuain hounding the him as he walked out for the second half) and the time wasting/gamesmanship that crept in towards the end. It broke up the game, our rhythm and had an effect on us. Playing by your rules we would have pursued 2-3 of your players with the intention of getting them sent off as they were very close to this and you could see the ref was aware this could happen. But we didn't, we stuck to our game and is cost us...

Say what you like but I hate seeing gamesmanship from anyone, including us, it's like there isn't enough class or skill for a team to win properly.
 
Guido I do not want to be right we have different opinions. I have nothing but respect for the Spurs and the way they played. You have an incredible team and for large parts of both legs you dominated the game, I disagree with regards to the last 20 minutes after Juve's goals, but that does not change the overall picture. BUT if a team dominates a game for over 100 minutes out of 180 and still concedes 4 goals that could have easily been many more, it cannot be down to luck. I believe Alderweid absence has been a factor but the second goal by Dybala is absolutely absurd in that situation. Higuain found an incredible pass but the fact tact he could do that and find Dybala behind the line at 40 mt from goal IMO is simply not right, it should not have happened and it was a tactical mistake that was obviously compounded by the not exceptional individual quality of your CBs.
On the bright side I think you have in your hands a very easily improvable team, which could become a dominant force in EPL and Europe provided you hold on your best players that are so young can only improve over the next couple of years.

With a couple more strong CBs and more experience, ditching Verthongen that is out of his depth at this level, I think the team is incredible. At least that is my opinion

I respect your opinion and the fact that you've come on here to give some praise and not be an utter twat.

However you are wrong about Vertonghen, he's a class act and is in the top 2-3 CB's in England. He's an 8/10 most weeks and has put in MOTM performances against some of the leagues best teams this season. You're CB's were caught out for Harry Kane's goal in Turin, that does not mean Cheilini is out of his depth.
 
What a shit day it has been. I was left heartbroken last night. I felt if I had stayed in the stadium any longer than I did then I could have shed a tear.

I was on the tube thinking to myself that I have nothing to be angry about. Nothing to be ashamed about. Nothing to be disappointed about. Every player gave a good account of themselves.

I have heard people slag off Poch and the players but I can honestly say I wouldn't swap any of them.

We have so much to be thankful for. Our club is special for so many reasons.

Listening to Son after the game ripped my heart out. It was upsetting to see how down he was.

Today has been tough. To listen to the shit the media have come out with. To listen to the cunts in the BT Sport studio last night. To listen to Jason Cundy suggest that Dembele isn't a player. To listen to Durham talk shit has been tough. What I find worse is how some of our fan base look to the negative.

All I want to say is that I love being Spurs. The morning of yesterday I got a bit emotional thinking of my Grandad who is the reason I'm Spurs. How he would have loved to be part of last night. I thought how exciting it will be to introduce my 3 year old son to Spurs in a few years time.

Last night hurt. It still hurts now. It will hurt for sometime. But. Remember the reasons why you support our club. You will realise that last nights defeat doesn't really matter. We are bigger than this defeat and we have so much more to be proud of.

What a time to be a Spurs fan.
I think the most disappointing thing for me were the people who call themselves Spurs fans who were joining in on Talksport with the nonsense. Agreeing with Cundy saying Dembele isn't a 'footballer' as he doesn't score, assist or defend particularly well. Absolute tripe, especially from a defender who didn't defend very well.

Absolute morons!
 
Oddly enough, the lasting image I will take away from this competition is Chiellini and Buffon roaring at each other after the former intercepted a potential Kane header.

They showed it in slow motion. Pure passion and intensity from two of the great players of the game. They looked like they were in a war. I don’t care what Chiellini said later, that moment was the definitive mark of respect towards us. In that one moment it showed how good they thought we were, how much of a hurdle they knew they had to overcome, and how focussed they needed to be in order to triumph. Raw emotion that only comes from the highest level of respect.

We pushed one of the best teams in Europe to that level of intensity. That says a huge amount about us, and we should recognise and be proud of that. They had to fight tooth and nail to win. About as far from a ‘bottle job’ as is physically possible.
You only had to see their celebrations at the end of the game to see how hard they had had to work to beat us and what it meant. They knew they had come through a really difficult game.
 
I don't know how some of you guys could bring yourselves to watch and listen to all that media bollocks. I've avoided it like the plague as I know exactly the kind of shit they all come out with.
Like most proper Spurs fans, I saw the evidence with my own eyes the other night and know what happened. All the boys played their bloody hearts out and we just didn't get the rub of the green.
 
Guido I do not want to be right we have different opinions. I have nothing but respect for the Spurs and the way they played. You have an incredible team and for large parts of both legs you dominated the game, I disagree with regards to the last 20 minutes after Juve's goals, but that does not change the overall picture. BUT if a team dominates a game for over 100 minutes out of 180 and still concedes 4 goals that could have easily been many more, it cannot be down to luck. I believe Alderweid absence has been a factor but the second goal by Dybala is absolutely absurd in that situation. Higuain found an incredible pass but the fact tact he could do that and find Dybala behind the line at 40 mt from goal IMO is simply not right, it should not have happened and it was a tactical mistake that was obviously compounded by the not exceptional individual quality of your CBs.
On the bright side I think you have in your hands a very easily improvable team, which could become a dominant force in EPL and Europe provided you hold on your best players that are so young can only improve over the next couple of years.

With a couple more strong CBs and more experience, ditching Verthongen that is out of his depth at this level, I think the team is incredible. At least that is my opinion
Our high-line is rarely undone, it's there not just to compress the play in front of us but it's also their to tempt teams to play over it/through it, and 9 times out of ten concede possession of the ball, it's a risk but has been a worthwhile one given the percentages (you, Leicester and Burnley i think are the only teams that have scored as a direct result of it and even then Leicesters goal scored by Vardy was a worldie).

Vertonghen has been our best CB for the past two years, his performances have surpassed that of Alderwinred's. Although it's their partnership that really makes up the immovable rock when we are at full strength. Vertonghen's only real weakness is his 1v1 defending (it also happens to be Alderweireld's strength), but Vertonghen is rarely exposed 1v1 when we have a proper DM in front provided by either Dier or Wanyama. Dyabla's goal wasn't the fault of Vertonghen IMO, it was the fault of communication (collective) either Davies should have pushed up or Vertonghen and Trippier should have dropped. In addition to this Sanchez was sucked out of that line, which is important as we rely on him for his pace to cover the ball through or over the top. For me the biggest sin was Trippier for not running with Dyabla, even if he's behind him, he simply has to make his presence felt or make a decision to bring him down, anything other than stand still with his arm in the air but the line is broken, so concede that point.

You had THREE shots on goal and scored twice, whilst conceding 23 shots on your own goal. In the first game you were also out shot. On any other game you lose because we convert our chances as we have been for the past three seasons. That is luck in my book. Don't confuse this as Juve are shit, nothing can be further from the truth. You are an elite football team, a team that I want us to aspire to. You've some amazing individual players. There is nothing wrong in saying you were lucky, it's not meant to be a slur. I want us to have this luck all the great teams have this luck, they always stay in the game and often turn a game in their favour.

We got to this discussion if I remember correctly by you saying we should have shut-up shop and dug in and not play a high-line, i.e like you did. I'm responding and remain totally unrepentant, even in light of the result, and how the goal was conceded that had we have done that and invited you on to us you would have scored more as the defensive personnel available to us that night would not have kept you out and I'm as certain as I can possibly be you would have scored as a direct result of us employing this tactic (we can do this to great effect as we proved when playing BVB, when they were good and unbeaten I might add but we have the players available to allow us to do this). The other side of this coin is we got behind you numerous times in both games whilst you adopted this strategy and I've seen better more solid defending from Palace, Burnley, WBA, Chelsea, Swansea to name but a few but they have all restricted us to far lower percentage opportunities than those you did, to put it bluntly they defended better than you did against us, those teams limiting us to scraps. Given the opportunities we created against you I am desperately disappointed we didn't put the game out of reach from you.

You look to a missed penalty against us as a reason for you to put the game out of our reach, whilst I look to Kane's header 5yrds out and also wish the lino spotted the offside on Higuien's goal from the free-kick. All semantics and if's and but's. You won we didn't.
 
Jans fault for the goal, behave!
Can we also not forget and I bloody rate him, Lloris stood still as Dybala was running in.I was at the other end of the ground screaming for LLoris to come out. Go out at him and it forces an earlier decision / more delicate finish. Granted it would still have been an easy chance for him, one that he would still probably have taken, but give him the time that he did and he just picked his spot.

btw im not blaming him for the goal, just saying I don't think singling out a player is right, especially when there was no glaring error, the team collectively got sloppy for 2 minutes . it happens. experience gained.
 
I get the gist of your point.

Maybe I would offer this because the things you have mentioned re: the penalty that wasn't and our missed opportunities (which still occur at tight moments) can happen.

We had worked out way to being ahead. Pochettino, superb manager that he is chose to stick. Now take away for a moment your dislike of Mourinho.

I just think we could have moved first. Made a holding substitution if you wish to tighten things up. Allegri did once ahead.

Sure it's a gamble but it throws your opposing manager off guard. I maintain Allegri moved with one hand on hope if now two and got the reaction.

We held our nerve in many respects but Pochettino has to find a way and that means not always waiting even if things are going well.

Just a thought.


We just miss that one bit of experience. For what it's worth (and i know i am going to get slaughtered) i do sometimes see Eriksen drift in an out of games far too often considering the importance of hos position. I still need to be convinced that against the VERY BEST in the PL and Europe he flatters to deceive.

With a Modric, or a younger similar experienced player in this Spurs side i think we would be a match for the very best in Europe over two legs.

Our game against the "top four" is improving but for my money we need a genuine leader with experience of winning. Please don't laugh me out on this but i think that Davids made a difference a few seasons back and there must be someone albeit younger that could come in an be that general we appear to be missing.
 
I don't know how some of you guys could bring yourselves to watch and listen to all that media bollocks. I've avoided it like the plague as I know exactly the kind of shit they all come out with.
Like most proper Spurs fans, I saw the evidence with my own eyes the other night and know what happened. All the boys played their bloody hearts out and we just didn't get the rub of the green.

Yeah I go on a media shutdown. Don’t need to hear their crap.

False media. We don’t need it do we?
 
Finally forced myself to watch the highlights and Juve were fucking lucky. End of.
Don't wanna hear any bullshit about Allegri tactical genius, wily Juve, etc. Absolute bollocks.
Still very bitter about the result and reminds me of that bloody Chelsea semi last year.
No justice and I hate football sometimes.

And as for those so-called fans I saw leaving on 80 mins - I'm sorry, but you can fuck right off. The game could have always gone to (and almost did go to) extra-time so what are you leaving early for? Disgraceful fair-weather pussies. Like most, I stayed till the bitter end and got stuck in the crowd for well over an hour while you fucks sneaked off down Wembley Way so shit scared of having to wait for your poxy train. Wankers.
For the people who left on 80 minutes, I have no words.
 
We just miss that one bit of experience. For what it's worth (and i know i am going to get slaughtered) i do sometimes see Eriksen drift in an out of games far too often considering the importance of hos position. I still need to be convinced that against the VERY BEST in the PL and Europe he flatters to deceive.

With a Modric, or a younger similar experienced player in this Spurs side i think we would be a match for the very best in Europe over two legs.

Our game against the "top four" is improving but for my money we need a genuine leader with experience of winning. Please don't laugh me out on this but i think that Davids made a difference a few seasons back and there must be someone albeit younger that could come in an be that general we appear to be missing.

I 100% agree with the point you make on both Eriksen and what Davids brought us.

It really is fine margins. Wafer thin but absolutely bang on the money.

We needed what Drogba nearly always did for Chelsea in terms of getting that crucial goal and we then needed someone on the pitch who game managed, especially when Juventus both changed it and when they equalised.

We need Eriksen but we maybe need stronger heads around him.

We will see how much the loss hurt us, how good a repair job Pochettino has done on Sunday and then against Chelsea. We will then see if our experience, which is growing is put to good use when we face a vibrant Swansea.

Big 2 months with the minimum requirement for Pochettino being a return to the Champion's League just to show our resolve.

An FA Cup win or at the very least a final appearance would make this team in my opinion.
 
I don't know how some of you guys could bring yourselves to watch and listen to all that media bollocks. I've avoided it like the plague as I know exactly the kind of shit they all come out with.
Like most proper Spurs fans, I saw the evidence with my own eyes the other night and know what happened. All the boys played their bloody hearts out and we just didn't get the rub of the green.

Had a listen to Football Weekly where they created a reason for us not winning out of their own heads, in that if you rough us up a bit we roll over, which is obviously bullshit.

They then wondered why we had done nothing to combat this specific problem which they then decided had been going on for the last few seasons...without considering the reason that maybe we hadn't done anything about it is because it isn't the problem at all...
 
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