I never did finish reading all of this thread. Now I have a different one to read instead.
Man though, this game, in the context of last night, assumes even more greatness. Seen a few pundits suggesting on a different day Spurs would have beaten the Liverpool side that turned up. That assumes that that Liverpool side would have stayed as it was if things had gone differently.
Commentators have played down the 3 week break, the players returning from injury, the potential of playing in hot conditions, when talking about the quality of the game. Their narrative is that these two sides blew themselves out in the semis. There's an idea taking hold that Liverpool were there for the taking if VVD and Alisson were absent.
What a load of bollocks.
First up, our resurgent defence is the product of experience - they were brought in specifically to avoid a repeat of last season's final result. Second, our game management this season has been second to none - we were NEVER there for the taking.
I admitted to my mate during the game that I didn't like the pressure we were inviting on ourselves, and that teams who do usually invite a sucker punch. But of course I didn't think through at the time that Spurs were facing the same kind of crap we were, to a worse degree, AND didn't have the squad to handle it the way we could.
I said in the half time thread they were having bags of possession but doing eff all with it. And that cycles through to why I'm posting this in the Barca post match and not last night's - this thread shows the gears we could potentially cycle through if we had to.
This idea that the Liverpool team put out last night could ONLY perform as they did and not do better is an utter joke. We played within ourselves certainly, but also tactically; recognising the conditions and conserving our energy - doing just enough to contain Spurs. We were one nil up so it was basically us saying to them, "you want it, you got to fight for it. Come at me, 'bro. Come take it if you can." Spurs tried. Spurs failed. If they'd tried harder, they still would have failed. Because we were always going to be better.
As I said in the other thread, possession doesn't win games, points or trophies. Goals and clean sheets do. We've learned that to our cost, so rather than simply outscoring opponents we had to learn to manage our games, especailly matches which might only be decided by a single goal against stubborn opposition.
Spurs haven't mastered that. We did a Burnley on them, and it was immensely satisfying to do so. We didn't HAVE to play great because Spurs weren't playing great.
We have Number 6, and people will remember the Barca game forever; the final will be remembered solely for the first two minutes and last two minutes. And a great big fucking shiny trophy.
This game was historic. The European Cup makes it legend.
