The always controversial Paul Gardner writes about Chelsea's victory over Barcelona.
A couple of deja vu scenes present themselves. It's 1954 in Berne, and West Germany has just won the World Cup by beating the invincible Hungarians (well, they hadn't lost a game in four years). How could that happen?

In an international friendly on Wednesday afternoon (or evening, depending which continent you were watching from), Alejandro Sabella's Argentina took on Switzerland in Berne and after a performance that was neither stunning nor poor from the team as a whole, ... Continue reading →

Going, going, GomesThis blog sincerely hopes none of you out there are feeling especially downtrodden or disheartened. Our fate was sealed at 4-0 in Madrid. There may have been a tiny chance of a miracle comeback, mainly because we're Spurs and it's what we do. But there can only have been a handful of Spurs fans who could have genuinely said that they thought we'd drag it back at the Lane.

As the last person to leave remembers to flick the porch lights off, close the back door and slide the key under one of the many overflowing bin bags that've been piling up since last September- thus saying a fond but hearty fare-thee-well to Tottenham's maiden Champions League voyage- perhaps now's a good time to look back on the whole remarkable experience and say: well that was a bit of alright, wasn't it?

Some leagues are given more Champions League places than others so that the competition can be made up of the best teams in the continent, some of which hail from the same country. That Tottenham, in fifth place in the Premier League, can deservedly beat the team that has led Serie A for much of the season proves that England are ready to be awarded a fifth place in the competition, at the expense of one awarded to Italy if need be.

Bargains USA world-cup: FIFA to decide on 2014 World Cup slots next week - Reuters Canada - http://news.google.com/news... 3 hours ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like Eurosport.com AU FIFA to decide on 2014 World Cup slots next week Reuters Canada BERNE (Reuters) - FIFA will make one of its most politically sensitive decisions next week when soccer's governing body decides how many places each continent will get at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

This week marks the return of Champions' League football to the European calendar, with the first night featuring Tottenham going back to the San Siro, this time to take on A.C. Milan.

Last time they were in Milan, Spurs started out about as badly as is possible, being 4-0 down at half time and down to 10 men against Internazionale (a position they enjoyed so much, they repeated it against Fulham in the FA Cup last month).