All the match previews focused on one key factor – Tottenham’s injury-hit midfield. It’s the strongest area of the team and with Gareth Bale and Tom Huddlestone out and Rafael van der Vaart and Luka Modrić at half fitness it looked like we were going to the San Siro trying to keep the score down. With Jermaine Jenas suspended Redknapp finally had to put some faith in Sandro. He partnered Wilson Palacios with Aaron Lennon on the right and Steven Pienaar beating Niko Kranjčar to the left midfield spot, Redknapp opting for the hard-working South African over the thunderbolt-hitting Croatian. Van der Vaart played off Peter Crouch and half of the defence that got hammered last time they visited Milan (William Gallas and Benoît Assou-Ekotto) were joined by Vedran Ćorluka and Michael Dawson.
We should have been awarded a penalty in the first minute – Alessandro Nesta leaning into Pienaar’s shot and stopping it with his arm. It was the start of a fantastic quarter of an hour for Spurs, bombarding the Milan goal and playing good passing football too, with Ćorluka and Lennon getting a lot of joy out wide. A period of dominance punctuated by Christian Abbiati’s injury. He went off with concussion after clashing with Crouch.
At the start of the second half Van der Vaart picked up the ball with his back to goal on the edge of the area, swiveled and sent a delicious chip narrowly wide. Substitute keeper Marco Amelia had tipped his shot over in the first half. Alex Pato replaced Clarence Seedorf at the break and eventually Milan found some rhythm. On 50 minutes Mario Yepes rose highest from the melee and forced Heurelho Gomes to palm the ball away from the top corner. Gomes made an even better save ten minutes from another Yepes header.
In the interim Mathieu Flamini sent Ćorluka off on a stretcher with his ankle strapped up after a two-footed lunge that somehow only got a booking, and Rino Gattuso got Joe Jordan round the throat on the touchline. He pushed Crouch shortly after, but got away with that too. He eventually got booked for a late tackle and will miss the second leg, but that doesn’t absolve the officials who had a very poor game.
Gallas moved to right-back and we saw, for the first time since the 9-1 victory over Wigan, that glorious sight – Jonathan Woodgate taking the field for Tottenham Hotspur. He blocked a Flamini shot as Spurs defended deep and for the first time in the match got a little sloppy.
But the Milan attack was uncharacteristically blunt and up against a defence playing out of their skin. With ten minutes left we got a well-earned winning goal. Modrić, who came on for the excellent Van der Vaart with a third of the game left, played a quick ball to Lennon after Sandro’s interception and Lennon had his very own Bale moment galloping up the pitch, hurdling a Yepes tackle and squaring to Crouch who tucked a side-footed shot into the bottom corner. Lennon is due some recognition. Seen by so many as quick, but without a final ball, on the same level as Theo Walcott, when he’s actually much more consistent than he gets credit for. Tonight he showed on the biggest stage what he is capable of. As for Crouch, well, his contribution to the successful Champions League run is as big as anyone’s and he caused Milan all kinds of problems last night. If anyone dares chant ‘super Pav’ next time Crouch is playing in his place, turn round and give them a clip round the earhole from me.
Sandro made a sliding tackle on Zlatan Ibrahimović with five minutes to go, one of many vital stops in a fantastic performance. His partnership with Palacios looked potentially calamitous, but they were combative, energetic and they passed the ball well. Sandro could be a big player for Spurs and his season starts here. There were understandable concerns that he might be out of his depth, but let’s not forget that he has won the South American equivalent of this competition.
The referee added a paltry four minutes and halfway in Dawson and Palacios let a dangerous ball bounce, Dawson then getting in the way of Robinho’s shot. Ibrahimović’s overhead kick a minute later hit the back of the net, but he’d pushed Michael Dawson before the strike.
After the final whistle Gattuso continued his ill behaviour, ‘very shameful’ Gallas said, hitting Sébastien Bassong and going back to ex-Milan Joe Jordan and head-butting the man. It prompted an angry outburst from Graeme Souness in the studio calling Gattuso ‘a little dog at best… go get the ball, scuffle around’. He said Gattuso was past his sell-by date and wouldn’t last ten, no five! minutes alone with his former teammate. Gattuso apologised saying that Jordan was busting his balls throughout the second half. Flamini also apologised to Ćorluka for that appalling tackle. When asked if Flamini should have been sent off he replied, ‘He should have been sent to jail’.
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