UCL MADNESS: AJAX SO CLOSE, SO FARAWAY...DORTMUND MISS REID AND MBAPPE GOES HAM

        This week saw the 1st legs go down for the beginning of the Round of 16, with injuries and absences galore for PSG, Tottenham and Dortmund heading into these matches.
         Led by a shadowed Mbappe, an exuberant and classy Marco Verratti finally living up to his billing and an extremely good Angel Di Maria, PSG completely made up for the missing Neymar and Cavani.
       Their manager Thomas Tuchel sent natural center back Marquinhos, Verratti, German Julian Draxler and former Barcelona machine Dani Alves into the midfield, clogging Pogba's passing lanes with this group's combination of finesse and physicality, forcing Pogba wide to cover Alves splitting to the right wing for crossing opportunities. One one occasion, Alves found Mbappe with a little chipped dink into the box that the 20 year old nodded down into the corner, forcing an unreal save from David De Gea.

       United reverted back to old ways: defending deep, creating little and Marcus Rashford often blasting in unreasonable and wayward crosses in a formation that didn't even include Lukaku or a target man to attack those crosses.

       PSG stayed patient, worked the ball around the opposition box and finally, thanks to a breathtaking Di Maria corner that United, as a team, completely slept through and could only look on as Presnel Kimpembe sneaked through the scrum in the box and passed the perfect corner into the net, riding the pace on the ball passed De Gea.

       Once this happened, the rest of the second half seemed like one way traffic: PSG continued to probe and eventually found lightning in a bottle from a majestic through ball that went just a centimeter from being deflected twice by hapless, sprawling United defenders but broke through to the feet of the young French wizard. The ball was so precise, all Mbappe had to do was poke the ball, sweeping it in on the follow through: an absolutely perfect goal.
       Di Maria has been a consistent creator all season, yet we tend to take his efforts for granted. He's proven again how valuable he is with these 2 assists that have provided 2 gigantic road goals.
      Look for Di Maria to be on the next Assist Kings Quarterly, he not only deserves it, he's earned it thanks to that double of gravity-altering taps from his feet.

     

      Then, in London, Dortmund ran into a brick wall of high volume passing and obsessive possession play by an injury depleted Tottenham side anxious to play out of the back.
      Dortmund started strongest, forcing the overly aggressive Argentine center back Juan Foyth into numerous turnovers at the back, Delaney and Dahoud pouncing on misplaced passes and feeding Jadon Sancho (playing his first senior match on English soil, believe it or not), Witsel and Pulisic into openings, though they lacked the expert finishing touch or final ball to actually cut Tottenham open.
      They made a few bruises to Tottenham's armor (and a boot to the face or two), but Spurs continued to stay entirely patient and dominant on the ball, to the point their bad passes were never punished.
       It was bizarre how little of the ball Dortmund had, or even seemed to want.
      Frequent mistakes in the back 5 or 3 for Pochettino's men were happening frequently, with Davinson Sanchez and Foyth playing out of the back to an almost ridiculous excess; Toby Alderwiereld was pulled and dragged from his center back position clear out to the left hand side where Jadon Sancho was earning free kicks and dialing up the rapid heart beats for the Spurs back line.
       And though we saw a spirited performance from American Christian Pulisic, who was excellent at times, Jadon Sancho and Pulisic aren't center forwards and neither is Mario Gotze.
      There wasn't a point of reference or a core to Dortmund's attack. Frequent promising runs on the wings failed to materialize into anything more than easy Tottenham clearances and blocks. Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris had to make a few comfortable saves from Pulisic and Witsel, but wasn't troubled in the second half.
        Center back Jan Vertonghen moved out to LWB to make up for the absence of Ben Davies and the injured Danny Rose, a decision that confused commentators prior to the match.

        Vertonghen made damn sure everyone went back into their non-existent memories and remembered how he rampaged up the left wing as a left back during the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016, scoring a World Cup goal against South Korea from defense and providing dangerous crosses that he was unlucky not to receive multiple assists for.
       Pochettino saw something he could take advantage of on the right of Dortmund's defense, with versatile left back Achraf Hakimi doing a job at right back on the day behind Sancho. Pochettino made sure Son, Eriksen among others probed that side and combined with Vertonghen, creating preferable match ups and doubling up on Hakimi, forcing mistakes and backing the Moroccan into a corner at times, with and without the ball..

        This created the gap in space for Vertonghen to launch a pinpoint cross from the hip to a waiting, arriving and finishing  Heung-Min Son, totally taking advantage of any and all opportunities to score.
        Even more, Vertonghen buried a goal just like the one he delivered, finishing a perfect cross off at the back post with a pass into the net. The Belgian reminded us all of the power, versatility, aggression and creativity that he has to offer, intercepting passes and making tackles to go along with his work offensively.  It was because of these attributes that I really wanted Barcelona to sign Jan Vertonghen back in 2011....in another life, he would've been outrageous at the Camp Nou.
        Spurs took their chances and buried all 3 of  them, taking full advantage of Marco Reus's absence and keeping a clean sheet.
        Who knows how this match would've gone down if Kane and Reus were both healthy....but we don't get do-overs....Lucien Favre must wake his men up from the slumber of the 3-3 draw against Hoffenheim (Dortmund surrendered a 3-0 lead with 10 minutes left) and now this face spitting result.
         Dortmund have a huge task ahead of themselves in the 2nd leg, and although the decisive tie will be staged at Signal Iduna Park, the imminent danger of allowing any road goals to Spurs makes the challenge even harder.
         They'll need near full recoveries from most of their back four if they're to stake a claim to a comeback.....
         Or did we finally see the moment where Tottenham go ham in Europe?