Tottenham look beyond final 16 after Champions League good vibrations

Posted Friday, November 26, 2010 by theguardian.com

• Peter Crouch: 'There is no limit to what we can achieve'
• We have to believe in ourselves and fight, says William Gallas

Tottenham look beyond final 16 after Champions League good vibrations
Luca Modric, No14, gets hugs from Gareth Bale, left, and Peter Crouch after scoring Tottenham's second against Werder Bremen.

Tottenham Hotspur's excitable players are no different to the club's supporters in one respect. They have been pouring over the Champions League group tables and, with qualification to the last 16 assured, they are in collective agreement. The laudable achievement of emerging from a group that has contained the defending champions Internazionale is no longer enough.

The goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes caught the mood after last night's 3-0 home win over Werder Bremen. "This is not finished yet and we need to go to Twente and try to finish first in the group," he said. "I think this will make the difference for us."

If Harry Redknapp's team could beat FC Twente in Enschede on Tuesday week then, regardless of what Inter did away to Werder, they would advance as group winners, courtesy of their superior head-to-head record against the Italian Treble winners. A draw with Twente would be sufficient if Inter were to draw in Germany. In short, Tottenham need to match Inter's result. Twente and Werder have only pride left to play for.

Were Tottenham to top the group, the impact on their last-16 draw might be significant. As winners, they would enjoy seeded status and avoid Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. As group runners-up, however, there would be a bigger possibility of drawing one of Europe's powerhouses than not. Tottenham are thinking beyond the last 16.

It is doubtful, though, that anybody would hold too great a fear for the team who have attacked their debut Champions League campaign with gusto and sent a series of bold statements across the continent. Tottenham are the joint-top scorers at the group stage with 15, together with Arsenal, while they also scored six goals over the two legs of their play-off round victory against Young Boys, a tie in which they flirted with disaster before embracing success – one of the themes of their season.

Moreover, they have turned White Hart Lane into a European fortress, in which all four visiting sides have been unable to cope with their high-tempo attacking from all angles. Including the Young Boys game, Tottenham's home record reads P4 W4 GF14 GA2. No club would relish the trip to N17 in the knockout phase.

Touchstones during the campaign have been plentiful, beginning with the fightback from 3-0 down in Berne but Tottenham truly began to believe that anything was possible in Milan, when they entered the second half 4-0 down and with 10 men but rallied to 4-3, on the back of Gareth Bale's thrilling hat-trick.

"People wrote us off completely," said the midfielder Jermaine Jenas, "but we gave ourselves a mental victory in that second half. We had Inter on the ropes with 10 men at the San Siro and not many teams will go and do that. We looked at ourselves and said we can do anything if we're all at it. It was a catalyst."

There is the sense at the club that they have come a long way yet this is simply the beginning. The future holds tantalising possibilities and Gomes was moved to make a most un-footballer-like admission. "We think a little bit about the Champions League final being at Wembley," he said. "For the English team, this is so special."

The striker Peter Crouch was part of the Liverpool squad that reached the Champions League final in 2007 but he said that his current club have greater strength in depth. "We had some great individuals when I was at Liverpool but as a group of players I don't think I've played with better," he said. "Not just that, we have a young squad, with many internationals waiting to get on. There is no limit to what we can achieve. We've got such quality in our dressing room that we shouldn't be afraid of anyone."

Against Werder yesterday, Redknapp's substitutes were worth a total of £60m. It is also worth considering that Tottenham have enjoyed such an encouraging start to the season with arguably their best centre-halves, Ledley King and Michael Dawson, and their top striker, Jermain Defoe, restricted to little more than a handful of appearances apiece.

Even William Gallas, the club's new captain when King does not play, stepped before the microphones. "After Saturday's win at Arsenal, I think the players know we can do something," he said. "With the squad we've got, we can do everything. We have to believe in ourselves and fight."

Redknapp deserves credit for helping to instil the good vibrations. Some of his players are in the form of their lives, chief among them Bale, whose devilish deliveries have carried shades of David Beckham in his Manchester United pomp. "Harry believes in his players and he tells them how good they are and how good they can be," Crouch said. "I think that the players are starting to believe it."