Poch vs Klopp a fitting Champions League finale to the craziest of seasons
MAURICIO POCHETTINO and Jurgen Klopp have not won a trophy between them as managers of Tottenham and Liverpool.
Both have been derided for tossing off domestic cup competitions and been told that, for all the feelgood factor they have engendered at their clubs, they need silverware to truly prove themselves.
Well now, after two of the greatest comebacks in football history, they will face off for the biggest trophy of all. Old Big Ears itself.
The European Cup final in Madrid on June 1.
Three nights earlier, Arsenal and Chelsea may well play off for the Europa League trophy in Baku, Azerbaijan.
And before that Manchester City and Liverpool will contest the final day of the most relentless and gripping Premier League title race in history.
What a ridiculously frenetic, dramatic, breathless season this has been.
Every single night of it seems to have you roaring in disbelief, marvelling at the sheer improbability of the plot twists and, if you’re writing about it for a newspaper, worrying deeply for your coronary health.
Pochettino used Liverpool’s comeback from 3-0 down to beat Barcelona as an example to motivate his Tottenham players in Amsterdam.
And while Ajax are a bunch of talented young pups, boasting nothing like the grandeur of Lionel Messi & Co, Spurs pulled off something almost as miraculous — and even more heart-stopping in its late drama.
THE STUPID ENGLISH COMEBACK
Just like Divock Origi and Gini Wijnaldum for Liverpool on Tuesday night, it was an unlikely understudy who produced the heroics.
Lucas Moura, the last player Tottenham actually signed 15 long months ago, grabbed a hat-trick to wipe out a 3-0 aggregate defict and see Spurs through to their first ever European Cup final on away goals.
For years, the continentals have derided the Premier League for its ‘Stupid English money’.
More pound notes than sense, arrogant and bloated but with very little to shout about.
And for years they’ve certainly had a point.
Spanish clubs had claimed 11 out of the last 12 European trophies — only Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United bucking that trend.
But here was a new phenomenon: the stupid English comeback.
The official club motto is "To Dare Is To Do". Pochettino’s has had to be "To Make Do And Mend".
Dave Kidd
United, the great under-achievers of the Big Six, started the trend by overturning a 2-0 deficit with a hugely-depleted team against Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes in March.
But even that had nothing on Liverpool’s fire and fury to demolish Barca at Anfield and then Tottenham’s deep reserves of team spirit to claw back Ajax.
Every one of the home players lay prostrate and heartbroken on the floor after Moura’s winner.
The Johan Cruyff Arena had been vibrant and boisterous but suddenly you could hear a pin-drop . . . except for the knot of 3,000 Spurs fans high up in the corner behind the goal in which Moura scored all three goals.
Ajax had already dethroned champions Real Madrid after their three-year reign, then knocked out Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus for good measure.
With their outstanding captain Matthijs De Ligt — a teenager trapped in the body of a bear — and playmaker Frenkie De Jong, already destined for a Barca side which suddenly seem to truly need his talents, the Dutch club had been the feelgood hits of this Champions League season.
And it looked for all the world as though, Pochettino — famed for over-achieving on a limited budget and blooding talented kids — was going to lose the biggest tie of his life to a club with an even more modest budget and with an even better record for promoting youth.
De Ligt and Hakim Zeyech struck in the first half to leave Spurs hoping for a miracle.
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But then again miracles are ten a penny in the Champions League knockout stages. It is genuinely difficult to remember whether there has been a single straight-forward and sane two-legged tie in this year’s entire competition.
Certainly not these psychotic semi-finals.
Liverpool have beaten Spurs twice in the league this season and are undoubted favourites for what will be only the second all-English Champions League final.
But you would not write off Pochettino’s ‘super heroes’ after this second-half miracle — with two Moura strikes early on and a third at the death.
On the eve of this semi-final second leg, Pochettino suggested he could quit if Spurs lift this trophy because there would be no way of topping it.
Now he might want to ring Pickfords and get a quote for the removals van.
KANE VS SALAH
Now we can enjoy 3½ weeks of Harry Kane’s frantic battle to be fit for the greatest match of his career after an ankle injury.
Because, of course, Liverpool achieved their great escape without Mo Salah and Spurs staged theirs without Kane — two of the greatest goalscorers in the world’s richest league.
Sure English clubs have the finances and the squad depth but, with Pochettino’s Spurs and Klopp’s Liverpool, there is a rare spirit too.
Both of those managers have transformed the mood music at their clubs.
Few fans of either club would have a bad word to say about the manic German or the steely Argentinian.
But years from now, the history books will only truly remember the trophies.
Liverpool will contest their ninth European Cup final at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano, for Spurs it will be maiden territory.
Remarkably, Pochettino’s men lose to Everton on Sunday it will be the TWENTIETH defeat of their season.
Yet, win in Spain and they will be immortal.