During Tottenham’s thrilling encounter with AC Milan at the San Siro Harry Redknapp let slip that his tactical prowess is much greater than he wants us to believe. Inter Milan may have taught Spurs a lesson in the first of his first big European examinations in the San Siro this season, but the good news for Tottenham is that Redknapp and his boys in white learned from it, before passing the retake with flying colours.
On paper this test was harder than that of the preliminary stage; whereas Rafa Benitez’s Inter were floundering in the shadow of their treble success, Massimo Allegri’s side have been rejuvenated by the signings and subsequent resurgence in form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho. They are six points clear at the top of Serie A as a result, having won 4-0 against Parma on this very pitch in their previous match.
Last October Spurs were bewildered by an Inter side that went 4-0 up inside 35 minutes, in a geometry lesson led by Javier Zanetti; a steep learning curva indeed. This time Spurs started from the off, with the clear game plan of refusing to allow Milan to settle on the ball, to get it wide and to target the obvious aerial threat of Peter Crouch. A good first five minutes were crucial, but Spurs continued to play with an intensity to which Milan were not accustomed for the entire first half, dominating chances on goal.
At Monday’s press conference Redknapp did his best happy-go-lucky act when declaring that his squad had not the players to defend; no bus to park. Instead they would go out and attack: the same naïve approach that has been the undoing of many inexperienced English teams away from home in the Champions League. After the smoke of mind games cleared like a red flare dispersing into the wet misty air, the reality was that Redknapp played Wilson Palacios and the vastly inexperienced Sandro as two tenacious yet disciplined holding midfielders, who barely strayed from their posts.
The result was that they dominated Clarence Seedorf, who floated, or more like flitted ineffectively between Milan’s three defensively minded midfielders, Thiago Silva, Gennaro Gattuso and Massimo Ambrosini, and the front two of Robinho and Ibrahimovic so much so that the Dutchman, the one and only winner of three European Cups with different sides in history, was replaced at half time. Instead it was Robinho who was charged with the creative role, and Alexandre Pato was introduced beside the Swede to inject some pace.
Having dominated the first half but failing to score, Tottenham were still fired up, still biting into the experienced Milanese midfield at every opportunity. Spurs rode their luck somewhat with two world-class saves from Heurelho Gomes early in the second half, and could easily have been led, through fear, to attack in a fight rather than flight reaction. After all, Spurs are the most cavalier side to have advanced from the group stages, scoring 16 and conceding 11. Instead, Redknapp and his team kept their heads while the Italian side lost theirs.
What followed can only be described as old-fashioned Catenaccio from Tottenham; Redknapp’s side ‘bolting the door’ on Milan in their own back yard by using one of the oldest tricks in the Italian book of tactics, one which got its nickname from Helenio Herrera’s Inter Milan side of the 1960s in this very stadium and has characterised many of the greatest patient Italian sides since, including AC Milan themselves in the 80s and 90s. This was made yet more ironic by the highlights of famous tactical AC Milan victories, and the speech of the bellissima Martina Colombari (wife of one Alessandro Costacurta), in the Heineken Lounge at half-time.
In short, the English students gave the Italian veterans a master-class of defending deep and with great organisation. When the chance came they broke with pace, again playing to their strengths. The slightly less tactically-astute but lighting fast Aaron Lennon was pushed up on the right, ready to break when released by the calm decision-making of substitute Luca Modric after Milan’s full backs had both been pulled forward. Lennon left Milan’s cultured yet somewhat pedestrian central defenders in tatters as he skipped past Mario Yepes before rendering the usually unflappable Italian Alessandro Nesta (the last in a rich vein of patient, tactically astute AC Milan defenders from Franco Baresi and Costacurta himself through Paolo Maldini) completely helpless with a bisecting pass to Crouch, who slotted home.
The game ended with the self-destruction, on and off the pitch, of another Milan icon: captain Gennaro Gattuso. In the dying seconds Nesta and co. panicked further as goalkeeper Marco Amelia charged forward for a corner without invitation, thus jeopardising the home team’s final attack. Few would have predicted the score line, but fewer still would have predicted the manner in which the victory was achieved, or that it would be Harry Redknapp to leave the pitch at the San Siro smug in the knowledge that, on the evidence of this enthralling 90 minutes of vintage Champions League football, the pupil had become the master.
Charlie Coffey
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