Spurs took just one point from their first three group matches in this years’ champions league campaign. That’s shit. Really shit. So much shit that you actually enter the uncharted realms of probability. ‘No team has EVER come back to qualify after scraping just one point from their first 3 matches’. But come back we did and qualify we did. Ok, we had a bit of help along the way with ‘surprising results elsewhere’ but to fight back, when half of that group consisted of Barcelona and Inter Milan, was a thing of brilliance, of beauty and, probably, the reason we will really really REALLY struggle to keep hold of our manager come August.

And we entered the ‘round of 16’. The first leg, 2 weeks ago, when we beat Dortmund at Wembley. Not just beat them but thrashed them. 3-nil. A big score considering we were underdogs and they are the current German league leaders. But we had to play them again. Them’s the rules. Last night. In the somewhat partisan atmosphere of the Westfalenstadion. Probably in Dortmund, I reckon. Where the local ‘anthem’ is ‘You’ll never walk alone’. In English. That’s like us singing Autobahn, which is not exactly rousing, or the Horst Wessel song, which I think is probably illegal.

I didn’t see the match. I endured the agony of following the text on the BBC website. And it weren’t pretty. ‘Spurs all over the place!’ ‘Shambolic’. ‘No attacking threat’. And as the first half wore on, surprisingly (and thank-God-fully) still 0-0, the possession numbers for Dortmund rose and rose until they peaked at 77%. Holy Moly. We were somewhat ‘on the back foot’, with just one shot on goal (off target, obvs) which, in my mind was by Toby Alderweireld from 73 yards; our highest attacking position so far. That’s the beauty of ‘live text’; YOU DON’T FUCKING KNOW ANYTHING AND ITS NOT FUCKING LIVE.

I remained calm. And then, a miracle occurred. Soon after half time. Spurs scored a goal. In a second half that ended up with Dortmund having just 67% possession, we created a chance, it fell to Harry Kane and our main man gave a big ‘FUCK YOU!!!’ to all who questioned his slightly off-par recent form. Because if you have him in your team, you don’t need to create 15 chances, just the one will do.

At which point Dortmund needed to score 5 goals to win. A draw, because of the ‘away goals’ rule was impossible and it was game over. They still persisted, for pride, for consolation, FOR GERMANY, but they didn’t score. So we go marching into the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Good luck to Arsenal tomorrow night when they play… I can’t remember, never heard of ‘em, in the UEFA. And Manchester United should be buoyed by Spurs when they go to Paris tonight. Because ‘no team has ever’ come back from losing a first leg 2-0 at home, before. Mainly because no-one has ever done anything until someone does it. Andy’s rule.

I’m loving football at the moment. Loving my team who are so capable, strong and resilient and can defend for three quarters of a match without giving away a penalty. Amazing.

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx