Are Tottenham taking Bodo/Glimt lightly? Bodo is a really tough place to travel, and have been operating at a decent level for a while now, and they have the 2nd leg at home, so if Bodo come out of the first leg without too much damage, they are well in this tie. It's one of the hardest places to go to in Europe.
Getting to the final certainly won't surprise me. Winning will be a step too far imo for them, unless they can miraculously manage to get the final to be played in Bodo.
If they get to the final and it's Man Utd then it's well doable. Bilbao, not so much. The English teams have shown domestically that they're not the toughest nuts to crack. Bilbao are at least up there in la liga.
It's hard to say. We have history of taking teams lightly in Europe and going out to average teams. I'd like to think we won't take them lightly in a semi final and will give them respect. That said, we are favourites and there's no point shying away from that. We've gone away to Galatasaray, Ibrox, Frankfurt this season already so I don't think we'll be too intimidated going away. Any away game can be difficult but really it's a tie we should win over two legs. Being Spurs I can't say that we will but I'll be disappointed if we're not in that final in Bilbao.
Over the years I've often been the one to start the European threads on this forum. I've always been fascinated by European competition. One thing I've said frequently in recent years is that given their resources, Premier League clubs shouldn't be getting knocked out by any side that is outside of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and perhaps PSG. The gap between the Premier League and the rest is so big now. Even second tier footballing countries like the Netherlands, Portugal etc are struggling more and more against the clubs from the big four leagues. West Ham have won a European trophy. The likes of Leicester, Villa, Wolves and Brighton off the top of my head have reached a decent stage of European competitions in recent years. All of the established "top 6" have reached a European final in the last ten years. To have a Norwegian team be the only thing standing in our way of Europe is a massive opportunity. I don't care how good they've been, what results they've got over the years. The gap in resources means anything other than progression is outright failure. I really hope we don't disappoint tonight. Unfortunately the stupid time difference Stateside meant I couldn't grab a ticket last week but I'm already dreaming of Bilbao. Massive night for all involved. Big performance please Spurs.
No side reaches a europa semi without being decent and at least functional defensively. Usually English sides will have more resources all round so are fitter and faster and can overpower sides. I'll be honest, lfc have played some decent sides over the years and just bully them
Probably. I still think the most Spurs-like scenario is we reach the final and lose to Manchester United having beaten them three times this season. They're there on merit and have done well over the past few years but Spurs should win. I highly doubt it'll be as straight-forward as that but the reality is Spurs are and should be strong favourites. The thing that concerns me is that we've seen time and time again, in Europe in particular, that we underestimate our opposition. We've already failed to beat non-league opposition in 90 minutes this season so I doubt we'll just rock up and get the job done in a professional manner. Some of our cup performances this season have been more concerning than our league performances / results.
If you want it bad, you have the players. I don't know that you have the players to beat bilbao but it's up to utd to take care of them first.
Yeah, I'm not as confident in beating Bilbao but we'll see. Let's get there first and worry about the opposition once we're in the final. The final being in Bilbao is added incentive for them.
I'll cry if this ends up with a United v Spurs final. Deathknell for European football if that happens.
