It was the 1st of June 2019, Tottenham vs Liverpool in the Champions League final. But how did it all come to this? Well, today I'll be breaking down how Spurs made it to their first ever Champions League Final.
Coming off a close 4th place with Arsenal one point behind them, Spurs had qualified for the Champions League for the fourth time in a row. On August 31 was the draw for who Spurs would play in the group stage. They were drawn with Barcelona, Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven. This was probably the hardest group that year, and they weren't thought to go through. Their first game was on September 18th against Inter Milan, and things were looking good for Tottenham, with Christian Eriksen scoring the opener early in the second half. But in typical Tottenham fashion, they let in two goals in the last five minutes, which saw them going third in the table. Next up was Barcelona, where Barca were clear favourites, because they had the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. The game went as expected, Philippe Coutinho scored in the 2nd minute and Rakitic scored a world class volley in the 28th minute. Harry Kane gave Tottenham a bit of hope with him scoring in the second half, but Messi quickly shut that down. Twice, actually. The game ended 4-2, and things weren't looking good for their Champions League dreams. The only team they hadn't played was PSV, and they knew if they had lost, they were most likely out. So they went out on the pitch and produced a draw. Not the best result for their current situation but it all worked out at the end, with them beating PSV the second time around, beating Inter and drawing to Barcelona. This would see them going into the knockout stages where they would face Borussia Dortmund.
The game got off to a slow start, but in the second half, Son scored, Vertonghen scored and Llorente scored. This would give them a massive edge over Dortmund in the second game, where Harry Kane scored early in the second half to seal the deal. Their next opponent would be their fellow Englishmen, Manchester City. As they had won the Premier League the year prior, they were the favourites. The first game was equal for the first 75 minutes until Son Heung Min scored, giving the Spurs the advantage over City. The game ended 1-0 for Spurs, and they went into the second leg feeling confident, until Raheem Sterling scored within three minutes of the game starting. But Spurs fought back with a goal four minutes later, and another goal three minutes after that. This game was looking to be an absolute mess. And it was. In the 60th minute it was 4-2 to City, and Tottenham needed a goal to secure a spot in the semifinals. Spurs brought on Fernando Llorente, who looked like he scored a goal with his hand, but after a VAR check, the goal stood, and they were through to the semifinals.
Manchester City were fuming, but a result is a result. On the other end, Ajax had just beaten Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus, and were also through to the semis where they would face Spurs. On paper, Spurs were most likely to win, but this was quickly scrapped, with Ajax winning the first leg one to zero. Tottenham had to turn this around, otherwise all their hard work wouldn't have paid off. But things were looking messy for Tottenham as Ajax's Mathijs de Ligt scored within 5 minutes, and Hakim Ziyech made it 2-0. But Tottenham fought back as Lucas Moura scored two to make it level. Spurs could not seem to score the rest of the half, until Lucas Moura stepped up in the dying stages of the game and scored one of the most iconic goals in Spurs history to complete his hattrick. It was so special, and Tottenham had made it to the UCL (UEFA Champions League) finals.
This is where we go back to the beginning: It was the 1st of June 2019, Tottenham vs Liverpool in the Champions League finals. Both teams were feeling the tension and the pressure, but Liverpool not as much, as they had been in the same situation one year prior. And that experience gave them the edge over Tottenham: Moussa Sissoko handled the ball in the 1st minute of the game, and Divock Origi scored to seal the deal in the second half. It was all over. Tottenham was distraught. But they were proud at the same time, as this was a great way to capitalize this amazing season and run in the champions league.