The Warm-Up: How Poch took the Spursy out of Spurs
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Updated 12/12/2018 at 09:18 GMT
Plus: Mo Salah is a boss; Neil Robertson has words with Guillem Balague; and some Ken Monkou/Dave Beasant gold.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino
Image credit: Getty Images
WEDNESDAY'S BIG STORIES
Tottenham complete miraculous recovery
Tottenham picked up one point from their first three Champions League matches - after their 2-2 draw at PSV they looked gone.
Just as they did 1-0 down at home to PSV, only for two late Harry Kane goals to keep them in the competition. And at 0-0 against Inter 10 minutes from time at Wembley, before a late Christian Eriksen strike revived their chances. And indeed at 1-0 down at the Camp Nou last night - cue, yep, a late goal! This one from Lucas Moura.
Meanwhile Inter Milan failed to beat PSV at the San Siro, and one of the more improbable Champions League escapes was complete.
Unwavering resilience, decisive moments late in games... NOT being the ones to soil the bed on the final day... why, this was like no Tottenham side the Warm-Up has ever seen before.
It's probably unwise to read too much into a fanbase from its online persona, but Spurs Twitter is an oddly neurotic place for so upwardly mobile a club. Full of first names, of course - Hugo, Toby, Jan - but also riddled with angst about Mauricio Pochettino. His substitutions, his failure to blood more youngsters, his admittedly baffling attachment to Moussa Sissoko.
- "Great to see KWP in the side tonight - Poch finally giving him a chance."
- *Walker-Peters makes horrific error, costs team a goal*
- "Ah, well that's because Poch has criminally underused him. Destroyed his confidence."
The Warm-Up doesn't believe Pochettino is perfect. What it does believe is he's removed Spurs' Spursiness - and for that he should be able to do whatever he wants for however long he wants.
Salah > Ospina; Liverpool through
Liverpool furthered England's commitment to staying in Europe with a nervy win over Napoli, on one of those Special European Nightsthe Warm-Up lovesso much.
In an odd quirk of maths, Liverpool went into the game having lost three of their first five matches, while Napoli were unbeaten - but the 1-0 result was enough to turn the tables.
Mo Salah produces goals like last night's so consistently, it's easy to forget how good they are. He's too skilful to tackle, and too quick to stay with. All you can do is hold tight and pray the keeper comes through. Which, when it's David Ospina in goal, is a pretty high-risk strategy.
If Liverpool were arguably a functional goalkeeper away from winning the whole shooting match last season, then Alisson's stoppage-time save from Arkadiusz Milik should terrify their rivals.
They might only just have squeaked through, but none of the group winners will want any part of Liverpool in the last 16.
In Other News: Australian snooker player has better Spurs take than prominent journalist
Here at Eurosport we are fans of any and all sporting crossovers.
So it is with great excitement that we await the next instalment in the beef between ubiquitous Spanish football node Guillem Balague and snooker ace Neil Robertson.
It seems Balague's effusive praise for Tottenham last night struck something of a nerve with Chelsea fan Robertson.
Maybe we're biased, but it kind of feels The Thunder from Down Under has got a point here.
HEROES AND ZEROES
Hero: Nick Viergever
Fourth minute of stoppage time, Mauro Icardi through on goal and poised to send Inter through at Tottenham's expense... and Vergiever makes a ridiculous goal-saving tackle. Spurs fans: drown that man in Amstel.
Zero: The Champions League
What, after drama like last night's? Well yes, because tonight sees just one last-16 place decided as Lyon take on Shakhtar Donetsk. Otherwise, it's seven games of nothing - and don't even try and get us interested in last-16 seedings or Europa League dropout places.
HAT TIP
The Warm-Up has laid off the Raheem Sterling story today, but you'll obviously want to see David Squires' cartoon on the topic.
RETRO CORNER
Things might be a bit grim at Southampton these days... but fan unrest and rank incompetence aren't exactly a new phenomenon there.
COMING UP
Oh god, we've just badmouthed tonight's Champions League... erm, well both Manchester teams are in action, including a Paul Pogba punishment selection for United against Valencia.City play Hoffenheim. And indeed there's the one game that counts - Shakhtar-Lyon from 20:00. And oh! Hey! The Club World Cup starts today. Enjoy!
Jack Lang will bring you Thursday's Warm-Up unless 48 of his colleagues pass a no-confidence motion
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