SC Braga v Tottenham Hotspur Match Preview

UEFA Cup (Round of 16)

Thursday, 8th March, 2007 - KO 9.35pm

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L W W L W W - - - W W W W L L

A trip to Portugal should be very pleasant for Spurs’ fans at this time of year and they will be travelling with high hopes following Spurs’ impressive return to form and taking note of Spurs’ record in Europe this season, unbeaten in six games.

Spurs’ European experience against teams from Portugal includes a meeting with SC Braga in the 1984-85 UEFA Cup. Spurs as Cup holders met Braga in the 1st Round and progressed comfortably, 9-0 on aggregate. They won the 1st leg in Portugal, 3-0, with Mark Falco(2) and Tony Galvin scoring and in the return game Garth Crooks scored a hat-trick with Gary Stevens, Chris Hughton and Mark Falco completing the scoring.

Spurs overall record against Portuguese team is very impressive:

P 8 W 5 D 1 L 2 For 17 Ag 7

– from four ties they have progressed on the last three occasions, defeating Vitoria Setubal (UEFA Cup in 1972-73), SC Braga (UEFA Cup in 1984-85) and FC Porto (ECWC in 1991-92). The only slip was in the European Cup in 1961-62, the ‘double’ team lost in the semi-final to Benfica, having had goals controversially disallowed in both games.

SC Braga reached this stage by beating Parma 2-0 on aggregate – winning both games by a single goal. In the home game against a very defensive-minded Parma Ze Carlos scored after 81 minutes and in the away leg Parma dominated the game but an 89th minute goal from their Brazilian striker, Diego, ensured qualification even though they had French midfielder Frechaut sent off with 15 minutes remaining. Their goalkeeper Paulo Santos had kept them in the game early on.

They had finished 3rd in their Group stages, behind AZ and Sevilla having lost to both teams.

Although SC Braga are currently 4th in the Portuguese League, they are way behind the leaders – 9 points off third, 14 away from Benfica in second and 18 points behind League leaders, Porto, whom they lost to in their last game. They lost by a solitary goal but missed a penalty and GB on FTL who saw the game described them as a neat passing side but with little end product. In always trying to pass they make mistakes to concede possession and may find difficulty against Spurs more physical approach. He reckoned they looked suspect defensively, especially the right back, although their keeper, Paulo Santos, looked useful.

SC Braga’s last results are not overly inspiring – they have won their last two home League games – 2-1 against Amadora who are 11th in the League, needing a penalty to bring them back into the game and a 90th minute winner from Wender who was then sent off. Their other victory was against bottom club, Aves, and needed an 81st minute strike from Ze Carlos. They lost by one goal to Leiria who are now fifth, two points behind them.

Between their ties against Parma SC Braga changed coach – Jorge Costa is now in charge. He played for Charlton Athletic in 2001-02 season. Apart from playing Spurs, Braga have met English opposition on one other occasion – West Bromwich in UEFA Cup of 1978-79 and lost 3-0 on aggregate, so they haven’t managed to score a goal in games against English opposition.

Spurs team should be on the usual lines, Rocha is ineligible so Gardner and Dawson will retain the central defensive duties, Zokora should return after injury but Jenas may be out after going off against West Ham. Robbie Keane is again available and may start ahead of Defoe. Berbatov has score in his last four European games and is looking to be the first Spurs’ player to score in five successive European games. Let’s hope he can do it.

Not wanting to under-estimate SC Braga but Spurs are very capable of winning in Portugal, although over two legs other results can be looked upon favourably as long as the end result is progression to the next round.

Two additional incentives to beat SC Braga – they play in red shirts with white sleeves and their nickname is Os Arsenalistas (The Arsenalists).

Spurs have an excellent record in Europe this season, they have shown considerable application, skill and awareness of tactics in all of those games and everyone will be looking for a similar performance on Thursday evening to take Tottenham Hotspur one step closer to Glasgow on a spring evening in May.

COYS.

It Just Wasn't to Be!

Defoe scored his 13th goal of the season in the 13th minute against Newcastle but it turned out unlucky in the end as Spurs lost 2-3

Well, it's a new day and looking back at yesterday's defeat to Newcastle, it's obvious that for Spurs it just wasn't going to be their day.



Shay Given saved enough shots in the opening quarter of an hour to have seen Spurs safely home and then having taken the lead, admittedly Defoe was offside - about the only slice of luck Spurs had all day, they immediately let Newcastle back into the game.



Even the equaliser had it's share of good fortune - the original header from the free-kick was going nowhere until it hit Siberski on the back of the head and fell kindly for Huntington to have another go and his shot across goal hit Robinson's foot to end up in the back of the net.



Malbranque missed an open goal from way out in the first and in the second half after going ahead Spurs had so much possession that Newcastle were chasing shadows but Spurs could not score thanks to Given, stout defending and their tendency to make one pass too many.



The equaliser was another once in a life-time 'screamer' - why are they always against Spurs?



Even when behind Spurs had a shot blocked on the line and Defore hit the post - by that time the realisation had dawned that this wasn't going to be Spurs' day.



Three points lost and slipping away from the top six - a UEFA Cup place is becoming more difficult to achieve with every dropped point and so there is added pressure for Cup success.



The 'Tottenham way' is about playing with style, regardless of the result, and certainly Spurs played some exciting passing football yesterday and some people are satisfied with that.

I'm still disappointed that they let the three points slip away when they were there for the taking. Newcastle who played their part in an exciting game were an injury hit team but they won't care that they spent most of the game chasing and harrying the Spurs players, allowing Spurs to play the 'attractive' football, because at the end of the ninety minutes they had the three points and are now only three points behind Spurs.



When will Spurs get three points from a performance similar to that of Newcastle?


When did they last get three points from a performance like that?



I can't answer either question - sadly Spurs' just don't seem to have the character to dig deep like that.

On This Day - 14th Janaury, 2007

Spurs Discover Another Way to Lose!!!

Spurs 2 Newcastle United 3 (Premiership)

Frustration, sheer frustration - that's the only way to describe my feelings following this afternoon's defeat at home to Newcastle.

Throughout the game - there was constant irritation - the stream for the game on the internet was constantly buffering, a few minutes or less and it was gone - it even contrived to ensure I missed Defoe's opening goal, created by Malbranque.

Then there was the commentators - going on and on endlessly about the long injury list that Newcastle had and the young team they had to put out - it was painful to listen to.

Then low and behold Spurs having dominated the first fifteen minutes until they scored, managed to concede a goal from a free kick two minutes later - the first time they had got near the Spurs goal. More frustration - another game without keeping a clean sheet.

There may have been frustration among the players at half-time but it was nothing compared to the way I was feeling. The second half improved and after some initial Newcastle pressure Spurs came to life and took the lead with a goal from Berbatov. Great - that helped my Fantasy football team.

For the next period Spurs controlled the game and the pressure mounted on Shay Given's goal but Spurs couldn't score. Then the whole day fell apart - two minutes and two goals - not for Spurs but Newcastle were ahead and no matter how much Spurs huffed and puffed the three points were on their way back to Tyneside.

I hate Sunday matches - I spend all weekend waiting for it and then when they lose my weekend is ruined and I'm still annoyed the next day when I go back to work - at least if they lose on Saturday I've got over it by Sunday.

And so Spurs have added another way to lose to their already lengthy list:

- dominate the game, take the lead twice and lose three goals on the counter attack.

This joins this season's favourite away ploy:

- try to contain for half an hour, then concede and give up, losing by three
(@ Liverpool & Arsenal)

or

- get caught cold and concede three early goals rendering the rest of the game meaningless (@ Newcastle past two seasons)

Last season's favourite was:

- concede an injury time goal

A previous favourite of Glenn Hoddle was:

- go three up by half-time only to lose 5-3 (v Manbchester United)

But then David Pleat had to better that:

- go three up by half-time but lose to ten-man Manchester City (FA Cup)

Under Martin Jol such results seemed to be a thing of the past but this year there has been a decline to the bad old ways of previous regimes - maybe we have got our Tottenham back!

I wonder what excitement next Wednesday holds for the faithful who make the trek to see the Cup replay at White Hart Lane against Cardiff City.