A global journey…
In last night's round of 16 matches in the UEFA Cup both Tottenham and Everton won their games reversing the poor results achieved in the first leg. As an Englishman watching as both games went to a penalty shoot-out I had little confidence. We've all been there so many times before.
There was a certain inevitability that both the English teams would lose.
I've looked at both games to see if there is an angle to take for the defeats. Was it poor penalties by the English players? Well, Jermaine Jenas missed for Tottenham, but Jamie O'Hara scored. Jagielka missed for Everton, but then so did their banker, Yakubu. No, I don't think it was anything to do with poor technique from the English players.
I looked at whether this was conclusive proof that the top four in England are so much better than the rest in the Premier League. Everton are fighting for fourth place and Tottenham, with a Cup win under their belt, will be looking to do the same next season. Would any of the top four have been knocked out by Fiorentina or PSV, I asked? Well, PSV knocked Arsenal out last year, so I don't think anything of the sort can be proved here.
Is it that the English teams don't take the UEFA cup seriously? No, a look at the reactions of the players and fans, and the wonderful atmosphere at Goodison Park last night showed just how much it meant to both clubs. The managers have great pride in the way their teams played.
Of course, Bolton might succeed in Lisbon tonight but I'm not holding my breath. We are likely to have four English teams in the last eight of the Champions League and no English teams in the last eight of the UEFA Cup. There must be a reason.
Having considered all the possibilities I have concluded that both Tottenham and Everton were just plain unlucky. It's as simple as that. Both teams dominated their games last night and managed to overturn the deficit from the first leg. They both played well, and could have won the games in normal time. Poor finishing and great, if eccentric, goalkeeping kept them at bay.
Any blame for either team lies in a poor first leg performance. They could have done little more last night and should be able to take more positives than negatives out of the game.
Any amount of analysis will boil down to the fact that PSV keeper Gomes had no right to save Malbranque's shot in the last minute of extra-time and that Yakubu's penalty was one centimetere away from being perfect. On such things Cups are won and lost.
Both teams gave it everything. Both teams were simply unlucky.
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