As good as it gets...?

Yesterday's blog opened with the thought that, after a second year of elimination at the hands of their Blaugrana Nemesis, Arsenal shared the fate of those poor souls exiled to Hell in Dante's Inferno. The third part of Dante's classic 'Divine Comedy' sees the journey pass from Hell through Purgatory (basically like the M25 on a Friday) into Paradise. It's probably not stretching the point too much to say that Tottenham Hotspur could easily feel like they are sitting in Paradise right now.

Harry Redknapp aka Twitchy Stryder aka Twitchy and Scratchy (no, leave it, be nice) is extremely fond of reminding people that when he became Spurs manager, they sat at the foot of the Premier League with just 2 points from 8 games. That was always something of a false position with the quality of players in that side, but nonetheless even his fiercest critics (hi) cannot fail to acknowledge the remarkable achievement that came this morning.

After a tight, nervy, but never overly lucky 0-0 draw, Tottenham have eliminated AC Milan after the excellent 1-0 San Siro raid 2 weeks ago. This is a fantastic achievement, made all the more impressive with the fact that this is Spurs' first ever Champions League campaign. Whilst this Milan side may not be at the level of some of their more illustrious recent vintages, they are no mugs by any stretch - clear at the top of Serie A, able to start with a triumvirate of Pato, Robinho and Ibrahimovic up front, and with quality and experience throughout the side.

On that note and by way of a slight digression - how good (and old ) is Clarence Seedorf? He is one of those few players that I never remember not playing, and always at absolute elite clubs. Sheer class, combative, skilful and always exuding an air of basically being better than the players around him, he was also responsible for one of the most ridonk-a-donk goals I've ever seen whilst playing for Real Madrid. His punditry during last summer's World Cup was excellent and promises to keep the leccy on after his playing days are up - but at this rate he'll still be playing long after the last bit of electricity has been dug out of the ground. As is my understanding.

Back to the match: there were a few close shaves, as is always going to be the case against a quality side in a do-or-die game - but Spurs created opportunities of their own. The defensive rear-guard that they put on throughout always looked far more likely to succeed than the approach taken by Arsenal 24 hours earlier. Fifteen minutes into the game at Camp Nou it seemed inconceivable that the Gunners would hold out, a Barca breakthrough was inevitable - this mornings game also held a sense of inevitability towards it, but for me it was that Spurs would dig in and make it. After 4 minutes of injury time amid a wall of whistling from the impressively loud home support, the ref blew up (not literally) to send the fans into dreamland. The heavenly state of affairs for Spurs fans was made all the more sweeter by being able to sit on high and peer down at their fierce rivals: eliminated, wobbling, suffering.

That Tottenham did dig in and get the result they needed is a huge achievement. The draw in ten days time could pair them with any of Europe's giants; provided they can avoid their domestic rivals and Barcelona, they have no reason not to go for it and believe that a semi final is possible. Given the simple fact of 5 not fitting into 4, this may be their only foray into the Big Time for a little while...but they are sure as Hell making the most of it.