Brave and brilliant Spurs pull off miracle result in Barcelona and can now dare to dream
Spurs sealed their place in the last-16 of the Champions League after drawing 1-1 with Barcelona at the Nou Camp
MAURICIO POCHETTINO keeps pulling off so many minor miracles, you start to wonder whether the Tottenham boss has a major one in him.
Against a backdrop of stadium chaos and a transfer-market freeze, the Argentinian has led Spurs into the last 16 of the Champions League, very much against the odds.
After only one point from their first three Group B matches, Spurs have no right to be here.
But even though they had to rely on PSV Eindhoven earning a draw at Inter Milan, this was still quite some story as Lucas Moura netted a famous late equaliser.
In 4½ years in North London, Pochettino has done sterling work in establishing Spurs at the top table, despite a fraction of the budget of their top-six rivals.
Yet until now, that mythical ‘next level’ has always proved elusive.
That major trophy or that progression to the true business end of the Champions League.
Spurs were mugged by Juventus from a winning position in the last 16 last term but if they can go further this time, it will feel like a significant breakthrough.
The visitors fully deserved this draw — they played with pace and fluidity, they were brave and brilliant at times.
Yes, Barca made eight changes but they still fielded a mighty strong team and Lionel Messi was on as a sub before Moura’s decisive strike.
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There has been so much negativity off the pitch and yet Pochettino has continued to improve his impressive squad, creating a siege mentality and working them like dogs, as he always does.
It took a special team spirit to squeeze through here and they certainly enjoyed their celebrations last night.
The Spurs fans up in the Nou Camp nosebleeds will have been delighted to have turned up at this great theatre to discover that the leading man was having a night off.
Messi was one of eight players rested by Ernesto Valverde after Barca’s 4-0 thumping of crosstown rivals Espanyol.
The news will have gone down like a lead balloon at the San Siro, where Inter were depending on a favour from Barca.
Of course there were still two forwards, Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele, who had cost the Catalans somewhere in the region of £270million.
So it was hardly going to be a pushover.
Pochettino, true to form, was bold enough to hand 21-year-old right-back Kyle Walker-Peters his first start of the season in such a monumental match, after injuries to Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier.
Walker-Peters was born in Edmonton, up the road from where Spurs used to play and, rumour has it, where they intend to play again one of these days.
He is protective of his kids, Pochettino.
Walker-Peters, like fellow starter Harry Winks, has never been out on loan.
But Poch prefers to keep them under his own wing, not trusting other managers to nurture them.
It is an unusual policy in this day and age and the upshot can be low-mileage footballers with a lack of genuine big-match experience.
The danger of this was exposed as early as the seventh minute when Barca broke from a Spurs free-kick — ironically won by Walker-Peters — and the rookie was caught in the left-back position.
A slight stumble allowed Dembele to shoulder-barge him off the ball and then came a blast of the afterburners from the former Borussia Dortmund star, who left Walker-Peters in his wake and stroked home after dodging a wild, sliding tackle from Winks.
Walker-Peters looked spooked for a while, was soon booked for a foul on Coutinho, and struggled to gain any kind of composure. Not that Spurs were in anyway cowed.
They played some decent stuff at times — not least the delicious move which ended with Christian Eriksen slipping through Son Heung-min only for the South Korean’s shot to be saved by the left boot of keeper Jesper Cillessen.
Just before half-time, Winks was kippered by Coutinho, who cut in from the left and shot against the far post.
The news that PSV were winning in Milan would have heartened them, though, and Spurs started the second half with cutlasses between their teeth.
A classy move ended with Eriksen’s shot smartly saved by Cillessen and then Harry Kane was sent clean through, skying his shot but only after a push from Clement Lenglet.
Had the England captain gone down, he might have won a penalty.
Spurs continued to hold sway and Poch made a positive sub when Walker-Peters, who had improved, was replaced by Erik Lamela.
Barca immediately introduced a rather more impressive Argentinian.
Messi entered on 63 minutes to pretty much the biggest cheer of the night.
Then it looked like frustration after an Inter equaliser and Cillessen standing firm with an excellent point-blank stop from a Lucas Moura header.
But sub Moura had his moment of glory in the 85th-minute, poaching a goal from Kane’s late cross to send the Spurs boys in the vertigo seats into rapture.
