Tottenham’s Home Record in Europe against Teams from Italy

Gareth Bale introduced himself to world football against Inter Milan

Tottenham and Lazio meet for the first time in a competitive match in the opening game of the Group stage of this season’s Europa League on Thursday evening at White Hart Lane. The two clubs did play two friendlies in the autumn of 1992 after the completion of the Paul Gascoigne transfer. Lazio won both matches to claim the Capital Cup. They also met in a preseason friendly at White Hart Lane in 2002 which ended 2 – 2. Dean Richards and Jamie Redknapp gave Spurs an early lead but Lazio pulled one back before the interval and levelled in the second half.

Tottenham have, however, met other clubs from Italy in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup.

Champions League Experience

Oct. 2010 v Inter Milan (a) Lost 3 – 4  Bale (3)  [Group Stage]

Nov. 2010 v Inter Milan (h) Won 3 – 1 Van der Vaart, Crouch, Pavlyuchenko  [Group Stage]

A truly unforgettable European evening at Tottenham. Surely, the Champions League holders would have devised a plan to stop Bale causing havoc. They hadn’t and before long cries of ‘Taxi for Maicon’ rang out around the White Hart Lane ground. Rafael Van der Vaart gave Spurs the lead in less than twenty minutes. Peter Crouch added a second on the hour, created by Bale who was terrorising the Inter defence. Inter pulled one back with ten minutes remaining but Spurs were not to be denied and Bale created another with a surging run down the left for Roman Pavlyuchenko in the final minutes.

Feb. 2011 v AC Milan (a) Won 1 – 0  Crouch  [Round of 16 – 1st Leg]

March, 2011 v AC Milan (h) Draw 0 – 0  [Agg. Won 1 – 0]  [Round of 16 – 2nd Leg]

Tottenham had the advantage of the away goal but they had to withstand immense pressure as AC Milan tried to get back into the tie. William Gallas used all his European experience to keep them out and Spurs held on to progress to the quarter-finals.

UEFA Cup Exploits

October, 2008 v Udinese (a) Lost 0 – 2

The UEFA Cup Group stages were organised in an unsatisfactory system with five teams playing four games, two home and two away. Spurs first match was away to Udinese and it was only their second experience of playing a club from Italy.

This match marked the end of Juande Ramos’ time at Tottenham. The weekend following this match, he was replaced by Harry Redknapp.

First Meeting

The first time Tottenham met Italian opposition in European competition was in season 1971-72. They faced AC Milan in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

April, 1972 v AC Milan (h) Won 2 – 1  Perryman (2)

Steve Perryman

Alan Mullery and Steve Perryman were the names which made the headlines from this game. Mullery had been out with injury earlier in the season and when fit had been unable to displace John Pratt. Wanting to be playing he asked to go out on loan and joined Fulham. An injury to Pratt, however, just before the semi-final saw Nicholson unexpectedly recall his captain and instal him in the team.

Perryman produced a man of the match performance to give Spurs a slender advantage going into the second leg.  AC Milan dominated the early stages of this contest and Spurs found themselves a goal down early on and being outplayed by the experienced Italian team. Perryman showed industry and endeavour to drag Spurs back into the game, scoring from the edge of the box just before half-time and then repeated the exercise late in the second half.

April, 1972 v AC Milan (a) Draw 1 – 1  Mullery  [Agg. Won 3 – 2]

Tottenham’s matches against teams from Italy have been limited in number but memorable and full of incident. The Europa League match against Lazio will  have its own tale to tell and be equally as memorable as the previous matches, especially if it is the start of Tottenham on another European success story, Andre Villas-Boas having challenged his players to win the Europa League this season.

Anglo-Italian Cup

In September, 1971 as League Cup winners, Tottenham played Torino, the Italian League Cup winners, for the Anglo-Italian Cup over two legs. Tottenham won both matches, 1 – 0 in Italy with Martin Chivers scoring and 2 – 0 in the return, Chivers and Alan Gilzean providing the goals.