UEFA Cup: Wisla Krakow 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Tottenham Hotspur win 3-2 on aggregate)

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Well, after the truly shocking run of results in the Premier League, a trip away in Europe made for a very welcome excursion. The result sees us progress, but the victory over two legs was..... what shall we say?

Unconvincing.

So, we set out early on Thursday. A 4:15am wake-up call, an early flight out of Heathrow. So early in fact that I didn't even ask for the customary gin'n'tonic on the plane!

The shockingly expensive direct flights to Krakow meant we flew via Prague. I had wondered whether we'd make it to the game at all. It all looked a bit tight. Just under an hour-and-a-half to connect in Prague, arriving in Krakow with two-and-a-half hours to spare before the ridiculously early kick-off.....

As it turned out, all was well and having started the festivities, i.e. drinking(!), in Prague, we dumped our kit in the hotel, and headed into the main square where we'd arranged to meet some fellow travelling Spurs supporters, including my mate John from the garage down the road.

The Spurs fans were, initially, thin on the ground. With only eight hundred tickets made available it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise that we weren't turning out in all the bars! Eventually we met up with the travelling faithful and from the main square the police operation started!

I've said it before, policing of football in Europe has a rather different outlook. Full-on riot gear, marshalled into a column, police either side, police heading the crowd, police bringing up the rear!

Gathered in the city centre, police all around


From there we were marched to the Wisla stadium, passing the Cracovia stadium en route. Probably a five minute walk between the two - must make for quite a local derby!

The long march took its toll. Most of us had expected weather very similar to that back home. Grey, drizzly, low teens temperature. Nah. Sun, blue sky, very warm!

Of course, the fact that we were 'escorted' by the police meant the walk took a lot longer than it should have. Spreading then bunching, spreading then bunching. Waiting for a good few supporters sneaking off to the toilet in the park!

More waiting at the stadium itself as the security staff got themselves geared up for a quick frisk, and finally we were in the ground.

Hanging about at the stadium before the game


Bit pokey. Missing one whole stand, and pretty far from the intimidating atmosphere we'd been expecting. Of course, the fact that we were on for a 15:40 kick-off probably went some way towards explaining why it wasn't a sellout!

Interesting banner! Was soon removed when the match started!


We lined-up, differently again, as usual, from the Portsmouth game. King restored, Bale on the left, Gunther on the right. My God! A right back playing at..... wait for it..... right back! Modric also started, but with Pavlyuchenko cup-tied, even though Bent and Campbell started, it was evident fairly soon that that the latter was effectively playing left wing. Hmmmmm.....

Decent sized banner, but the stadium's missing a stand!


Bentley had been dropped thanks to his woeful displays and Lennon selected in preference. Would be interesting to see whether he could recapture some of the form he'd shown recently coming off the bench when starting.

When the match got underway it became fairly clear that the Wisla promise of 'attack attack attack' was about as far from the truth as thinking Spurs are a top four side.

Having expected them to come at us from the off, it was surprising to see how little pace and tempo they played with. That, of course, made it all the easier for us, but that's not to say it meant we played any better.

Far from it, in fact. For long periods in the first half we were dull. Dull dull dull. Lacking speed and tempo ourselves, Lennon looked like he'd converted back to the player who so often started in previous games. The midfield looked unable to utilise the ample time and possession afforded to them, and with Bent isolated up front we were looking toothless in attack.

The best chance of the first half fell to Wisla. A neat passing move on the edge of the Spurs box culminating in the defence being split, only for the Wisla player to scuff his shot, allowing Gomes to save easily with his feet. Bit of a let-off really.

And that's about all I remember of the first half. Not that great when all was said and done. I really hoped we weren't setting out to try and secure a draw. As a few of the others around me said - we couldn't see this match going into the last twenty minutes with the scoreline unchanged.

Thankfully, we didn't. Although we started the half poorly, again, we did take the lead with about an hour on the clock. The one aspect that had been pleasing in the first half had been Bale's crosses. He'd taken his time, moved the ball to his preferred position, and almost always delivered right into the danger zone. And in the second half, when he had the opportunity to deliver, he did it again.

Sweeping the ball in from the left, it was difficult to see how exactly it ended up in the back of the Wisla net from the opposite end of the stadium, but end up in the back of the net it most certainly did! One-nil! Surely from here progress to the group stages was assured. Get in!

Of course, with Tottenham its never that simple, and this season in particular we should know we're going to be up against it at every turn.

Despite having taken the lead we failed to press on and following Huddlestone's introduction for Modric - Tommy was utterly, utterly useless - Wisla broke, Gomes rushed out, was never going to get near, and that was that. One apiece, a well executed lob, and ten minutes or so to try to hold out.

Thankfully hold out we did. It took a decent double save late on. A stinging drive from outside the box that Gomes really should've held but palmed up to a Wisla player, and the most gifted of headers was directed straight back into his arms. Phew! If they had player up front who could actually finish, that probably would've been our European campaign done and dusted.

Limited post-match celebrations


So, that's how we secured progress to the group stages. The best word to describe it? Like I said - unconvincing.

It was a dire performance. Lacking any form of imagination and creativity, we were once again toothless up front, and despite starting with two strikers, we played with one of them on the left wing. That, in itself, I suppose I can put up with when we were taking a one goal lead into the second leg, but the lack of quality in the middle of the pitch was really a very poor showing.

Unfortunately Lennon failed to show the form he has recently. Lends more weight to the theory that he is better introduced from the bench. Jenas was..... well, not good enough. Campbell on the left was ineffective. The one half-decent performance in the middle of the pitch came from Zokora. He had some serious drive with a good few runs where he showed that he has a great turn of pace and can actually run with the ball. Of course, the end product leaves an awful lot to be desired. He did have one good crack at goal with a strong run and left footed shot..... which went wide. Will he ever score?!

The best player on the day? Probably Bale. Despite the fact that he and Gunther got bypassed a fair few times with diagonal balls over the top, his general contribution was very good. His crosses (in the first half in particular) were quality, and he did supply the ball for the goal. In addition he also cleared superbly off the line in the second half. Well worth his place at left back.

All-in-all, though, a seriously lacking performance. Whereas in previous seasons we all looked at the first game as a warm-up for things to come, this time 'round it proved to be a fair test. We can, at least, be thankful that we get four more games with a possible two away trips. Hurrah!

Of course, post-match, the policing took full effect again and after hanging out for what seemed like near enough two hours, we were finally 'escorted' back to the city centre at which point the police seemed to quite happily disappear! Odd that they should be happy to escort us all the way to the ground, and all the way back, yet be more than happy for us to wander off in the main square!

A couple of other intriguing observations about the police. (1) A water cannon mounted on a massive truck/lorry thing parked up outside the ground. Don't want to get on the wrong side of that! (2) The police carrying CS gas. Nowt too out-of-the-ordinary there, but not poxy little aerosol cannisters. Oh no. Full on aqualung style bottles on their backs with flamethrower type attachments! Whoa!

The fact that it had been an early kick-off meant we had plenty of time in the evening for beers and partying. Between us, John, Liam's dad (got to call him that as can't remember his name!), their Polish mate (Tom), my sister and I, had plenty of beer and some very hearty Polish meals. A decent night out, celebrating the opportunity to play a few more European games.

The consensus, though, was very much that we were poor. And on top of that there was little confidence that Ramos was the man to turn things around.

What we all agreed on was the fact that we have been horrible this season. In fact, we've been playing so poorly that you'd expect to see a small improvement from one game to the next. The problem, though, is that there isn't any discernible improvement! And when you're playing as badly as we are, that is absolutely shocking!

We spent some of the next day wandering around Krakow. Nice place. Didn't have enough time to get out and about and see the sights around the city, but looks the sort of place you could happily go back for a few days away.

The trip home was a long one. Three hour layover in Prague, and for me, a train journey back from Feltham via Clapham Junction and Southampton. Think I eventually got back at about 11pm. Phew! A long trip indeed.

From here we look forward to the draw on Tuesday. Incredibly we hold a place as one of the top seeds so won't play the likes of AC Milan, but a quick scout through the seedings shows there are plenty of very, very decent sides we could get drawn against. Ajax, Feyenoord, Sampdoria, PSG, and Deportivo to name but a few. All will be very, very much better than what was, after all, a pretty poor Wisla side. Oh boy, this is going to be a struggle!

Ah well, another European away-day successfully negotiated. As usual, a great trip. This time 'round though, shame about the game.

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Couldn't work out how to post this video without it totally screwing up the formatting of the match report, so here you go.....

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