Connections - Germany - part 1

Tottenham’s connections with Germany includes players being attacked during games, the World Cup Final, a political flashpoint, a player who was jailed because of where he was born and the tour the FA banned. The last hundred and twenty years have been eventful. We have also met their sides twenty times in competition and in each of our Champions League campaigns. 

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In part one we look at our first competitive meeting and the first in the Champions League.  That first meeting with a German club in European competition came in the UEFA Cup 1973/4 when in the 4th Round we traveled to Cologne for the first leg of the tie. Tottenham turned in an excellent performance to win 2-1. Chris McGrath our 19year old Northern Ireland international scored after 18 minutes when he met a ball from Chivers at the far post. The Germans leveled ten minutes after the restart.

Then with a quarter of an hour to play Terry Naylor came down the right wing and he found Ray Evans and his center was headed home by Martin Peters. It was only the second time in 30 games Cologne had lost at home in European football.

Above - From the programme fro the second leg.

The second leg two weeks later and Spurs got off to a great start, Naylor again and this time he found Chivers. The ball came back to Martin off a defender and he poked home the ball. It took just four more minutes for Spurs to seal the tie as Chivers again this time setting up Ralph Coates to head home.  We were 4-1 up with just 15 minutes played.

Into the second half and Chivers again turned provider as Peters got the goal and the third on the night. The next round would see us make a return trip to Germany this time to the East and Lokomotive Leipzig in the semi finals, a game we will recall later in the series.

A game many of us will remember fell in the 2010/11 season and saw our first appearance in the Champions League. Our first group game was at Werder Bremen in the North of Germany. Spurs again off to a great start with Bale causing confusion in their defence.
 Then after just 12 minutes his center ended up in the net off a defender. A few minutes later and Van der  Vaart’s ball into the box was headed home by Crouch.  Spurs were cruising, but  just before the break a rare mistake at the back by Spurs allowed them to pull one back.

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Bremen had their tails up and leveled just a few minutes into the second period. Several nervous moments followed and Cudicini was called on to make some fine saves, Spurs came home with a point when it should have been three.

The return on match day five saw Spurs make no more mistakes on the evening they secured progress to the knock out stages with a 3-0 win. Lennon was in excellent form and after five minutes he found Kaboul who fired home. Just before the break Modric (above) finished off a fine move he had started and Spurs were almost there.  With just ten to play it was Lennon again who set up Crouch for an easy finish. Such was Spurs superiority that they allowed Bale to miss a penalty and it didn’t seem to matter.

In part 2 – with an international friendly looming we look at the Spurs links at international level.
Top - image - Spurs in the first leg-(yes blue shorts in Europe).

COYS
Keith Harrison.
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