Tottenham Hotspur are having a good season so far in the Premier League as well Champions League. They are currently standing in the third place in the Premier League table and are looking well in place to make it into the Champions League for the next season as well. However, their scintillating run in the Champions League has been the talk of the football world this season, as it might be the best chance for Mauricio Pochettino’s men to lift a major silverware for the first time in their history.
Spurs have been well stacked with talented players in their ranks for some years now and they seem to have come through on the big stage this season. The north London club had a very tough group in the first round this season in the Champions League and they stuttered in the initial stages as well against the likes of Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven and Inter Milan. However, they did not lose their composure and made the odds count as they moved to the round of 16 in the tournament as the second team from the group, preceded by the La Liga giants Barcelona.
In the round of 16, Harry Kane and company went up against the might of the German giants Borussia Dortmund, who are also having a great season in the Bundesliga this season. Most of the football fans expected it to be a needle clash as Die Schwarzgelben travelled to Wembley for the first leg of the matchup but that was not the case to be. Tottenham took the encounter by the scruff of its neck and decimated their opponents by 3-0, with goals coming from Son Heung-Min, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente to almost seal their place in the next round. The next leg was just a formality and Spurs also won it by 1-0, courtesy of a goal from the talisman Harry Kane.
The quarter final stage saw the north Londoners come across one of the best teams in the Premier League of the contemporary era in the form of Manchester City. The Citizens have been pretty much the dominant side this season against almost every opposition they have come up against so far, both in the domestic as well as European tournaments. However, Spurs stunned them in the first leg by 1-0 and then in the second leg, it was a match of epic magnanimity as both the sides strived to make it into the next round. Though Manchester City won the match by 4-3, Tottenham went through to the semifinal on away goal advantage and are set to face the surprise package of this season in the form of Ajax Amsterdam.
The Argentine gaffer has proved himself as one of the masterminds of the modern game in the last few seasons with the rise of the north London club from being one of the mid table outfits to becoming one of the contenders to challenge the best in Europe. However, their tendency to choke on the big stages has seen them lose out on the opportunity to win major trophies but that might be finally eradicated this season.
Though the absence of their talismanic striker Harry Kane, who is set to miss the rest of the season with an injury, might be a detriment for them in achieving that coveted success, the stellar performances from players like Lucas Moura, Son Heung-Min and captain Hugo Lloris might see them lift their first major silverware in the form of the Champions League trophy. For that, they have to go past the Dutch giants Ajax and then the winners of the other semifinal between Barcelona and Liverpool, all of which promise to be a mouth-watering last few days of Champions League football in prospect before the end of the current season.
