Tottenham Hotspur Versus Sevilla UEFA Cup preview

By MattoftheSpurs
April 11 2007

Manchester United proved that revenge is a dish best eaten hot after they turned up the heat against AS Roma at Old Trafford and thumped the Italians 7-1.

Tottenham Hotspur (1)
Versus
Seville (2)

UEFA Cup quarter final, 2nd leg

12th April 2007

White Hart Lane

Kick Off 7.45pm

Live on ITV1


Manchester United proved that revenge is a dish best eaten hot after they turned up the heat against AS Roma at Old Trafford and thumped the Italians 7-1. After the beatings that the Italian Police dished out against the Manchurian supporters can the Spurs team do something similar against Sevilla and gain some parity by winning and going through to the UEFA Cup semi finals.

The first leg at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan was marred by the over exuberance of the Spanish police when they appeared to randomly dish out indiscriminate beatings to Spurs supporters for showing their displeasure at a poor refereeing decision.

No incidents of note were reported during the day in Seville as Spurs supporters mixed with their Spanish hosts on Maundy Thursday before the game. Whilst the fan zone set up by the Spanish club was largely ignored by most travelling supporters the Lilywhites fans that did go into the city centre respected the wishes of their hosts and were respectful.

This made the scenes that occurred inside the stadium even more baffling as the police allegedly completely over reacted to the reaction of the travelling Tottenham contingent’s disdain for the referee’s decision to hand Seville a lifeline in the form of a hotly disputed penalty.

The evening had begun well for Spurs when just over the minute mark they took the lead through a well crafted Robbie Keane goal. Some nice one touch football on the edge of the Sevilla box saw Keane put clean through. Although his first attempt was saved by Palop the Spurs man followed up his own shot and netted the rebound.

Spurs were in control of the match at this stage but the game was to turn on a ridiculous decision. Some indecision in the Spurs back four saw Correia burst through. Robinson dived at his feet and won the ball cleanly but for some inexplicable reason the Luxembourg referee, Mr Alain Hamer, gave a penalty. Robinson was booked for his protests before former Spurs striker Fredi Kanoute slotted the ball home to make it 1-1. The decision to award the penalty sparked the violent scenes in the lower tier of the stadium behind Robinson’s goal as it appeared that the Spanish police waded in with their batons to the Spurs supporters hitting anyone within range. Reports that a young woman and a disabled fan were targeted were enough to condemn the police in many people’s eyes.


Whilst the battle on the terraces continued to rage on Sevilla snatched a second goal to go 2-1 up on the night. A poor defensive header from Michael Dawson fell to Escude inside the six yard box who headed the ball back across the face of goal. Kerzhakov received the ball not 6 yards out unmarked and his glancing header found the bottom corner of Robinson’s net.

Half time came and some order was restored off the pitch with the police and the Spurs supporters finding an uneasy truce. On the pitch Tottenham were content to sit and try and hit Sevilla on the break whilst the Spanish outfit were finding it difficult to break down a resolute Tottenham defence. The match finished 2-1 to Sevilla setting up this intriguing tie. Sevilla may just hold the balance at half time in the tie but Spurs have the vital away goal. Tottenham have only failed to score at home in a European tie on two occasions. The first was the 0-1 defeat to Real Madrid in 1985 and the second occasion was the 0-0 draw with Feyenoord in 1992.

Ricardo Rocha again has to sit this one out as he is cup tied but the encouraging news is that Ledley King may well make his return to the first team. Anthony Gardner is still out, whilst there are fitness doubts over Young-Pyo Lee, Paul Stalteri and Pascal Chimbonda. For the visitors Palop the Sevilla goalkeeper is a doubt and did not play in his sides 0-0 draw with Racing Santander at the weekend.

A sell out crowd will be in attendance and in Spinal Tap fashion the noise will be turned all the way up to 11. Spurs have been on fire in front of goal for the last couple of months so it is expected that they will score. Keeping them out at the other end could well be the key as the team pushes forward to search for the goals that will hopefully take them through to a semi final on the dates of the 26th of April and the 3rd of May against either Osasuna or Bayer Leverkusen.

Whilst Tottenham's season does not rest upon this one match their quest for silverware does. We have some superb players at the club and it is their time to prove to the watching world that Spurs are a club to be feared in European competition. We also have the invaluable twelve man, the White Hart Lane faithful. Whilst patience could be also key on the night the crowd must never get frustrated and must be 100% behind the team. If we can do our part on the terraces then I’m sure the team will reward us on the pitch.

Get behind your team and enjoy the match.

Audere Est Facere.