Barstool’s Champions League Preview – The “Ajax vs Tottenham vs Fate (aka Death To Sam?)” Edition
Sam’s Soccer Safe Space For Stoolies
Hi Haters™,
Hoooooooooooooooooly shit what a game. The Messi fanboy in me is slightly annoyed that it gives the haters – of which there are surprisingly many – ammunition to further disparage The One True God. And the Tottenham fan in me is more than a little jealous. But all those feelings were somehow completely washed away by the sense of awe I felt at having watched something so incredible.
We now have now experienced three (legitimately) unbelievable collapses in the last few years… and Barcelona has been involved with all of them. First there was PSG’s epic implosion, then came Barça’s (in some ways) more shocking capitulation against Roma. And now we have Barcelona rolling over and dying in epic fashion yet again – this time to a Liverpool team that was missing two of its best players. Simply stupefying.
So a hearty congratulations to Liverpool fans on their hard-earned victory and advancement.
I am usually pretty good about finding ways to surreptitiously chip away at other club’s accomplishments to make myself feel better… don’t even feel the need to try and do that here. I was just thankful for being there to experience all the ups and downs, and to witness second-hand other people deriving a level of joy that I probably will never obtain in life.
Which is an interesting segue to today’s game. But before we talk about that let’s take a moment to get our minds right…
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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Recent results and schedule the rest of the way:
Traditional reminder for people itching to bet their house on the unders this week: second legs of home-and-homes are often a little more balls-to-the-wall than first legs.
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WEDNESDAY’S PICK
Ajax [+110]
Tottenham [+215]
Draw [+260]
Ajax have lost one – just ONE – of the 17 Champions League games they have played this season. I’ve been saying for weeks that they are the real deal (hence why I picked them to win the first leg), and they certainly looked like it in the first leg… for the first 30 minutes. They were passing, they were moving, they were scoring, they were looking like the second leg would be unnecessary.
Then a funny thing happened. Jan Vertonghen broke his face on Toby Alderweireld’s head and had to leave the game, which forced Pochettino into a tactical (and personnel) switch from a back three to a more traditional back four that totally changed the game.
Jan died so Spurs could live
Pochettino is infallible and has never made a mistake in his life, but he fooked up big time with the conservative formation and approach to the first leg. Spurs got played off the field for a half hour, then were the better side despite – with no Harry Kane (injured) or Heung-min Son (suspended) – relying for offense on crosses into the box where Fernando [M] Llorente was too busy fingering his prostate to bother making a run at or near the ball.
So what to expect today?
Spurs have Son back in the mix and they know they have to score, so you better believe they are going to be pushing forward with reckless abandon (perhaps after a little feeling out period) under the assumption that it is going to take AT LEAST two goals to win and advance… which should make for a FANTASTIC game because Ajax only know one way to play and that is to push high and go balls to the wall.
Both teams to score? Um, duh.
Take the over? Whatever it is, bang it.
As better-than-good as Ajax have been this season, they have actually done most of their damage in the knockouts on the road, at home they lose 2-1 to Real Madrid (albeit with bad some calls that went against them) and settled for a 1-1 draw with Juventus. Point being, this isn’t some sort of Anfield-like fortress that Spurs are walking into.
The game will likely be won and lost in the middle of the field where guys like Eriksen and Dele recovered from a VERY rough start (helped by the in-game addition of Moussa Sissoko 2.0) to do quite well in handling Frenkie De Jong. Spurs have a strange – if small – advantage in that conceding a goal isn’t necessarily a killer blow since they probably need two anyway, so they don’t have to play like they are walking on eggshells.
Do guys like Hakim Ziyech and (especially) David Neres scare me? Why, yes, yes they do. Quite a lot in fact. These are the kind of games where Alderweireld and Vertonghen usually come up huge, but anyone who has watched Spurs at all this season knows that it is not a matter of if but when Kieran Tripper and/or Hugo Lloris are going to make a mistake, and more importantly whether the opposition is there to pounce on it.
I really think Tottenham can win this game. I might even go so far as to say Tottenam should win this game. They for some reason played scared in the first game, perhaps because they (rightly) had zero conviction in FML doing anything offensively for them. Son and Lucas Moura are a different proposition, and should give the entire team some much-needed confidence. So my best guess is that Spurs come out and – maybe even after giving up the first goal – end up bossing the game and doing enough to win… but the fact is (and this is an inarguable fact) that if I pick Spurs to win today there is a 0.000000% chance they actually pull it off. Trust me, that is just how this works. So my prediction is that Spurs go into the final minutes of the game up 2-1 and looking like they will go through on away goals until someone (probably Ben Davies who came in late as a “defensive substitution”) gives up a penalty and Ajax draw level… game finishes as a 2-2 draw, Ajax goes through and I commit seppuku because life sucks and Spurs can’t have nice things. End of story.
In preparation for my impending death, thanks for reading these blogs all these years. It’s been real. Tell my mom I’ll miss her. And someone please feed my dog.
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Another bigggggggggggggg day tomorrow. Kidding, just Europa. Still some good games though.
Holler,
Samuel Army