Tottenham Hotspur 3 Inter Milan 1
Spurs avenged their 4-3 defeat in the San Siro to go top of Champions League Group A with a 3-1 win over the current European champions Inter Milan. Who else but Gareth Bale inspired this famous victory providing two assists. The young Welsh star absolutely tore Brazilian right back Maicon apart for the second game in succession, not renowned for showing any defensive ability whatsoever at the best of times. Inter’s back four, with an average age of more than thirty, could not handle his blistering pace and willingness to run in behind. The hat trick he scored, albeit in vain, in the reverse fixture was obviously not a clear enough warning for Rafa Benitez's men.
Turning out these outstanding performances on the biggest stage of club football have rightly earned Bale tons of admiration and as I predicted the gossip columns have become full of rumours that Europe’s top clubs are interested in him. Yet while one full back-cum-winger's praises are being sung another is having to take the blame. Maicon, capped 62 times by his country, has been thoroughly outclassed and embarrassed by a younger and faster player, but what is most satisfying for old fashioned full backs everywhere is he has been found out. It is all well and good attacking down the flanks from this position, as the Brazilian has made a career out of doing, but if you haven’t got the ability to defend or at least get back to help out your teammates then you run the risk of being labelled a liability.
He is in essence a one-trick pony. A player who has his uses but they, as tonight’s evidence shows, have limits. Can you remember the last time Maicon put in a tackle? To be fair to him he is very good at what he does, but this criticism is long overdue. It was only a matter of time before an opposing team stole the ball off him, played good counter-attacking football and thoroughly punished his desire to go forward. The one dimensional aspect of his play seems at least to have been noticed by new national coach Mario Menezes who has omitted the Inter player from his selections.
Naturally Brazil have not turned their back on aggressive forward-thinking full backs altogether though as Barcelona’s Dani Alves, a similar type of player, has kept his spot in the squad and effectively taken Maicon’s place in the side. Going back to Bale, it is the quality of his deliveries that have improved so much over the last eighteen months and clearly being fully fit with few niggling injury problems have also been beneficial. He made it so easy for Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko who just had to tap their second half goals in. At the moment he is unplayable
Inter were not at full strength tonight, but nonetheless they will be disappointed to see their excellent defensive record in the Champions League in 2010 be damaged by tonight’s defeat. The other real revelation for Spurs has been Rafael Van Der Vaart. Playing as the most advanced of the midfield behind Crouch, a tactic Harry Redknapp has often employed since his deadline day move from Real Madrid, he won the battle with Dutch national teammate Wesley Sneijder to impress in this role. His opener around the twenty minute mark, the eighth he’s netted since moving to London, was well taken but he owes a lot to the endeavour of Luka Modric. A perfectly weighted through ball and a well-timed run were Milan’s initial undoing before Bale turned on the burners.
The final word has to go to the top scorer of Europe’s premier club competition though. Samuel Eto’o, though only a consolation for Inter on the night, scored his seventh Champions League goal in four matches ten minutes from time. This is some return, but what is even more impressive is that he now stands more than three quarters of the way to the twenty goal mark already when the Italian season only began on August 21st. He has sixteen from a baker’s dozen of matches. The Cameroonian has certainly profited from the injury that has kept Diego Milito out of Rafael Benitez’s side and has without doubt relished a return to playing through the middle.
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