Ange Postecoglou dared to say it, and his players have gone and done it. The Greek-Australian has won a trophy in his second season, and Tottenham Hotspur’s first in 17 years.
The Europa League has often been discussed in terms of what it means regarding everything else in football but, for Spurs, it is suitably about glory. This is their moment, this scrappy 1-0 win over Manchester United was deserved.
That means it might also be another even longer period of pain for Ruben Amorim – if he remains at the club for that long. The promise and hope of United’s season is gone, and all because Postecoglou lived up to his own promise. United now have so many more questions, from what they do with transfers to – most pertinently – what the manager is doing with this system.
United, put bluntly, remain so much less than the sum of their parts. While they are left reeling at the worst campaign in their modern history, Spurs can forget all of that.
The end has justified some mean stuff. The decisions were worth it. Postecoglou’s appointment, despite all of the fair criticisms and remaining doubts, was worth it. He has given this club what they most wanted, through all of the agitation and frustrations from the board.
That obviously doesn’t mean they go away. It is unlikely to mean Postecoglou stays. But the beautiful, uplifting point is that they have their moment. This is what lasts.
It really is from one extreme to another, but how else to describe those emotions for the goal, and then at the end?
While emotion can’t completely wave away rational analysis or context, Spurs obviously don’t have to care about any of that for the moment.
There were long periods of this match where you could see why these teams are 16th and 17th in the Premier League table. It was often low quality.
The name that goes down in history, a Luke Shaw own goal, almost sums it up. Its scrappiness was arguably befitting of the game.
The only part of the goal that was completed with some precision was Rodrigo Bentancur’s pass. He worked it out to Pape Matar Sarr, whose delivery was unusually low and bouncing.
Maybe that was what was needed. Spurs had actually been a threat with some superb deliveries, but United’s three-man defence was initially robust. For this unexpected trajectory, Brennan Johnson got inside, but couldn’t quite get proper contact. It didn’t matter. The ball bounced back off Shaw, whose contact was – crucially – the strongest in the move. A scrambling Onana hadn’t taken command of his area and couldnt get any kind of control of the ball. It just about squirmed in.
Spurs didn’t care. They celebrated with an anticipation that this set of supporters hadn’t felt in some time.
United, once again in Europe, had made things unnecessarily hard for themselves. For all the lack of accuracy in the game, though, there was a real calculation to Postecoglou’s approach. He initially outfoxed Amorim, by doing what was logical.
Postecoglou continued his Europa League approach of eschewing that Premier League style. Spurs didn’t get into a blow-for-blow with United. They were very compact when they needed to be, and only really opened out with surges out wide and deliveries from out wide.
There was no high line and, in this case, no naivety. You couldn’t quite say it was naivety from Amorim, mind.
It was more that his plan simply didn’t work. United probably had the more inventive of the two attacks and the game’s most productive player in Amad Diallo, but the problem was again that it didn’t fit together as a whole.
There were too many gaps, too many players where it didn’t feel quite right. While it again feels harsh to criticise a young player, Rasmus Hojlund still lacks that striker’s instinct. It’s why United are trying to replace him – if they can now properly afford it.
And yet it was Hojlund’s header that brought a new test for Spurs, where they had to show a real resolve. Deep in the second half, as United were finally building, an opening was presented as Guglielmo Vicario was left stranded in his area.
Hojlund headed it over him… only for Micky van de Ven to arrive. It was a brilliant clearance, the winning of the game and this trophy.
What’s more, if Amad still looked the most productive player on the pitch, Van de Ven was the most effective. He personified Spurs’ defiance and was central to it. Vicario, for his part, also had his late moment. A stoppage-time save from Shaw was superb.
United were, by then, swinging it in. The game had gone from high stakes, if low quality, to just absorbing drama. You could sense the significance of it all. And yet there was Van de Ven. There was the Spurs defence.
There was Postecoglou lifting the trophy. United might have to deal with all the noise now, but Spurs can forget about it. They, and their manager, have a victory they will remember forever.
Discussion about this post