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This afternoon saw the draw for the Quarter-Finals of this season’s UEFA Champions League, and with four English teams in the last 8, it was always likely that two giants of the Premier League would be drawn against one another. That suspicion came true as Tottenham Hotspur have been drawn against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.
City will rightly go into the tie as favourites – Pep Guardiola’s men currently lead the Premier League title race and are 13 points clear of 3rd placed Tottenham, and more to the point, they’ve beaten Spurs in the last 3 games between the two. But after seeing them sweep Borussia Dortmund aside in the Round of 16, it’s impossible to count Mauricio Pochettino’s side out.
Here are 3 reasons why Tottenham can defeat Manchester City in the Champions League Quarter-Finals.
#1 They should be in the new stadium
The saga of Tottenham’s new stadium is simply too long to truly recount here, but to be frank it’s been a source of embarrassment for Spurs fans all season. Initially supposed to open at the beginning of 2018/19, safety concerns have seen constant delays that have meant the team are still playing at their temporary home of Wembley.
Thankfully, Tottenham are still in the Champions League – meaning those infamous tube adverts stating that the new stadium would be “the only place in London to watch the Champions League” should still ring true. That’s because it’s looking likely that the new stadium should be open for either the game against Crystal Palace on April 3rd, or against Brighton on April 6th.
The first leg of the tie against Manchester City meanwhile is booked for April 9th, and Spurs are the home team – meaning the game should take place in the new stadium. And while Pochettino’s men initially struggled with their home games at Wembley, they’re now one of the Premier League’s most adaptable sides – in fact, despite recent struggles they have the best away record in the league.
Throw in the fact that the Spurs fans – who have been desperate for the stadium to open for what feels like forever now – should be rabid for a big European night like this, and it isn’t out of the question that Harry Kane, Dele Alli and the others could use what should be a tremendous atmosphere to drive them to blitz City in the first leg – and then hold out for a famous victory at the Etihad in the return leg.
#2 City have choked in Europe in the last two seasons under Pep
There’s no beating around the bush – in his three seasons at the Etihad, Pep Guardiola has turned Manchester City into a pretty terrifying team to have to face. At their best, City are a well-oiled machine who tear through their opponents and make them look like rank amateurs. Their 7-0 victory in the second leg of the Round of 16 against Schalke was probably the most impressive showing of the round, in fact.
But it’d be false to claim that City have been infallible in Europe over the past couple of seasons. The fact that they’ve never won the Champions League obviously points to that, but it’s not like they’ve been unlucky in the last two editions of the competition – if anything, when push has come to shove, City have choked in Europe.
2016/17 saw them take a 5-3 lead over Monaco in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie – only to lose 3-1 in the return leg thanks to some slack marking allowing Tiemoue Bakayoko to score the fatal goal, sending Monaco through on the away goals rule in one of the biggest upsets of that season’s Champions League.
Guardiola seemed to have his team performing better last season as they swept aside their foes in the group stage and then destroyed Basel in the Round of 16, but a shock 3-0 loss in the first leg of their Quarter-Final tie with Liverpool – and a subsequent 1-2 loss in the return match – dumped them out prematurely again.
City will be looking to make this year third time lucky, of course – but based on their past performances there’s no guarantee that they won’t choke on the big European stage again – and allow Spurs to pull off the big upset.
#3 The Harry Kane Factor
Manchester City might have a plethora of genuine world-class players to call upon – Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva, et al – but you can never count Tottenham out of any game because in the form of their talismanic striker Harry Kane, they have one of the best goalscorers in the world right now, and a man who loves to step up on the big occasion, too.
Not only has Kane been the most consistent goalscorer in the Premier League since he rose to prominence back in 2014/15, but he’s also got a World Cup Golden Boot to his name – something that even the great Aguero can’t lay claim to.
To add to that, his record in the Champions League is absolutely fantastic. In 17 appearances on Europe’s biggest stage, Kane has 14 goals and 3 assists, meaning he’s essentially involved in a goal in every Champions League game he plays. This season alone, he’s scored a goal against Barcelona, struck a late double to sink PSV Eindhoven, and scored the winner in Tottenham’s second-leg victory over Borussia Dortmund in the Round of 16.
Kane might have only recently returned following an ankle injury, but his goalscoring form hasn’t let up at all – since his return he’s scored 4 goals in 5 games. And so long as Spurs can call upon the England captain to score the big goals in the big games, they stand a chance against any side in Europe – even Guardiola’s all-conquering City.
