Former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp believes that they are huge favourites to beat AC Milan over two legs and reach the Champions League quarter-final stage.
Tottenham will play at San Siro tonight in the first leg of their last 16 tie and it is a feeling that Redknapp knows well, given he was leading the London club in 2010-11 when they faced the same opponent at the same stage of the competition.
A Peter Crouch winner saw the Premier League side take a 1-0 advantage back to the capital, where a goalless draw again saw Spurs through to the next round by a one-goal margin, and Redknapp thinks that they will emerge victorious again 11 years on.
He spoke during an interview with the London Evening Standard to recall his memories from that tie and make a prediction ahead of this upcoming two-legged affair.
“I’m sure Tottenham will beat them. I think Tottenham are strong, I really do. I certainly think Tottenham are red hot favourites and quite rightly so to beat AC Milan. Tottenham will have too much for them,” he said.
“I couldn’t see them containing Harry Kane. [Dejan] Kulusevski, Richarlison: they’re full of quality. It’s a good Tottenham team that will be way too good for Milan.”
Redknapp also commented on the two games he saw Chelsea win against Milan in the group stages of the current campaign, in which the Blues won 3-0 at home and 2-0 at San Siro.
“Shocking. I saw the games. I don’t see any way that Tottenham don’t go through. It would be a massive surprise.”
On the games 11 years ago, he added.: “They had some good players. We wanted to keep it tight, which is what we did. With Aaron Lennon’s pace we broke away and Crouchy scored. It was a very good performance. To go there and win 1-0 was the perfect score-line.
“Then they came to White Hart Lane and dominated us. Clarence Seedorf ran the game. He was excellent that night but we defended well and came away with a 0-0 result. We did the job over the two legs.”
The last meeting at San Siro is now famous for the square-up between ex-Milan striker Joe Jordan and then-Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso.
“Joe speaks fluent Italian, having played in Italy,” says Redknapp. “His daughter is actually an English teacher in Milan now. They exchanged a few words in Italian, then it all kicked off. [Gattuso] was picking on the wrong bloke in Joe.
“You look at some of the quality players that played for them in those two games: they were very strong. Look at them now, they’re nowhere near that quality.”
Is this man belittling us? I guess it’s up to the lads to shut his mouth up with a great performance on the pitch.
No, he is stating the facts. We can pretend all we like that Serie A is what it used to be and that English football is a century behind like it was in the 80s or 90s, but the truth is, money buys quality and all the best players play in PL now. Maybe Real, PSG, Bayern and Barca to some extent can compete money wise, but we are nowhere near that. We are get outbid by Championship and PL relegation fodder, we are left with either PL rejects, geriatrics and kids.
Italy has lost, they lost the sponsors, they lost the supporters, youth academies are sub par. And as long as the same, 120 year-old corrupt troglodytes still manage Serie A, Milan and all the rest of the Serie A clubs will be 5 levels below any PL club.
Your are not wrong
Not all best clubs wins every time. This is a game like the games against Chelsea: if Milan players doesn’t give more than 100 % the result will be the same like against Chelsea. In many football games luck have also big impact in the game.
Considering how our 2023 started, we’re gonna need A LOT of luck.
Brutal, but accurate.
Even though Tottenham are favorites, if Milan can somehow not lose today, anything can happen in London in the 2nd leg.
Just don’t lose tonight
This is why he never won anything, arrogant, dumb and shortsighted, even from his words you know he is a classless man, objectively as a professional you need to analyze matches properly, not show any sentiment, this is why English football will never be at the pinnacle of Europe despite the billions they spend, all those players he mentioned are far inferior to Leao, if Kane was such a good player, why hasn’t he won anything at club and international level, even from the way Harry speaks, you know he is vain,baised and frankly dumb.
Can he honestly have allowed Joe Jordan and Gattuso to have a go, Gennaro would have killed him within minutes.
I hope this article is the last thing our guys read before they start warming up and then it’s totally upto them.
This aged well.