Temas: Jose Mourinho, Harry Redknapp
Tottenham Hotspur may be content with playing for pride against Real Madrid tonight, although nothing is impossible. So does Mourinho’s opinion appear as pure arrogance or not?

Tottenham Hotspur vs Real Madrid means that Spurs have huge moutains to climb.Mourinho’s Thought Recalls That Tottenham Hotspur Are Not Barcelona

When football fans and pundits insist that this UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie is over, it’s as if they forget that Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid have never been beaten 5-0 this season. Just go back to what happened on November 29 last year; the scoreboard at the Camp Nou displayed a 5-0 score line against the Spanish giants.

There is a great amount of logic in mathematics – which explains that Real Madrid will be OUT of the UEFA Champions League tonight if the 5-0 result falls at White Hart Lane in favour of the hosts. It only takes a few seconds to make such calculations and predictions; true. But to those out there who might dare believing that Spurs will record a 5-0 victory at home tonight, a Real Madrid supporter may simply retort:

 

“Hello? We will be playing Tottenham Hotspur and not Barcelona the Greats, for your information. So rule out the fear factor as a setback to our flying spirit.”

Jose Mourinho certainly thinks the same way, according to what he told the press during a press conference in London. “I don't think 5 goals is enough for Tottenham [Hotspur] to beat us, because I think we have come here to score goals. So if we were to lose 5-2 or 4-1, the objective [of reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League] would be achieved.”

Los Blancos are definitely in a very comfortable position to feel confident ahead of Wednesday night’s Tottenham Hotspur vs Real Madrid fixture. So why would English media The Sun, for example, brand Jose Mourinho’s opinion as a mockery of Spurs by writting, “MOURINHO has taunted Tottenham”?

A possible answer to this question would be that it may sound disrespectful for any confident person on Real Madrid’s side to imagine Tottenham Hotspur scoring 4 or 5 goals. Either way, whether Jose Mourinho’s statements were arrogant or not, the “Special One” hasn’t forgotten that caution counts a lot as he told the media:

“Strange things happen in football and that’s why I say that you have to respect Tottenham. We must respect the game that we all love to play. Harry Redknapp says miracles do happen in football and I agree with him completely.

“Football can betray you sometimes, so we can’t give him [Harry] the chance of that miracle. We’ve come here to play seriously sine I’m well aware of the mentality of English fans and English teams. I know how they will try anything and everything to beat you.”

Tottenham Hotspur: Big Dreamers... But Big Achievers Too?Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Redknapp and Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho are said to be friends.

It doesn’t hurt to dream, but many people prefer to face reality so as to avoid bigger disappointments. Should Tottenham Hotspur and Harry Redknapp join this category of mindset? Let’s face facts: Spurs lost 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid and they now need at least 4 goals to overturn this deficit and thus stand a chance of reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Since their heavy defeat last week, Tottenham Hotspur have been dreaming of a miracle. Nothing is impossible in football, but will the Lilywhites possess the perfect amount of luck and strength to make of White Hart Lane a torture room from a Real Madrid point of view?

“We are looking to win the game [at home] and see where it takes us,” Mourinho’s friend Harry Redknapp said on Tuesday.

“You cannot be too open, otherwise you can get smashed to pieces. [Real] Madrid have got amazing players on the break, with pace.

“But we want to have a real go and see what comes. Who knows what can happen?”