Just four days after England gave Spain a football lesson at the Under 17 World Cup final there was more painful viewing in Madrid as the goals went in at Wembley.
Television and radio match analysts Pedro Mijatovic and Jorge Valdano called it as they saw it – the former could be heard suggesting Dele Alli was a better player than Paul Pogba and the latter that Harry Kane was the complete striker.
The praise came thick and fast, like the Tottenham attacks.
Dele Alli inspired Tottenham to a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid at Wembley on Wednesday
Tottenham earned praise from around Europe for the manner of their display against Madrid
Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane cut a beleaguered figure on the sidelines
Marca lead with Zidane’s heaviest defeat as Madrid boss while AS call it a ‘nightmare’
Mundo Deportivo say ‘Review of Madrid’ after losing their second straight match
The Spanish don’t usually pride themselves on the physical side of the game but there was concern expressed in the first half hour that Madrid had not committed a single foul.
Zinedine Zidane was a worried figure on the touchline, trying to communicate to Sergio Ramos that he needed to get hold of the ball and get Madrid playing out with more confidence. Madrid’s midfield trio of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro were chasing Harry Winks’ shadow, so something had to be done.
In attack, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema were static and hard to find. And defensively there was a freeway on Marcelo’s left flank – one that Kieran Trippier was soon joyriding down at will. Marcelo was responsible for giving the ball away 29 times across the 90 minutes and Kroos and Achraf Hakimi were not much better, losing it 17 times.
It’s true that Madrid are missing Spain right-back Dani Carvajal. And Gareth Bale becomes a better player with every week that passes with him out of the team. Even Ronaldo admitted he is missing both of them in his post-match comments.
Just as Zidane took a lot of well-deserved credit for Madrid’s two straight Champions League triumphs, he will also carry the can for their worst defeat in the competition since 2005.
It did not go unnoticed that he did not make his first change until eight minutes after the third Tottenham goal went in. The contrast with the proactive Pochettino could not be more striking.
Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks produced another assured display against Madrid
Alli’s performance led some commentators to say that he is better than Paul Pogba
If the season ends badly for Zidane, Madrid could come calling for Spurs boss Pochettino
This was not about how bad Madrid were, it was about how good Tottenham were. ‘Pochettino graduates’ said Marca. Florentino Perez has already referred to him privately as ‘my Poch’ so if the season ends badly for Zidane and well for Tottenham, he will inevitably be courted.
His players will be targets too. Diario AS spoke about how Kane ‘could have been carried off the pitch shoulder high at the end of the game’, so well had he played without even scoring. And ‘Dele Alli’, said another commentator, had ‘floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee’. That phrase will have been used before but this was the first time in Spanish.
Madrid knowledge about Tottenham has now deepened considerably. Most would not have known too much about Winks and there was scepticism over Kane. ‘We have got to take this guy seriously,’ said one radio commentator as he burst between Ramos and Marcelo at the start of the second half.
When the third goal went in it was too cruel on Spanish supporters because this was classic Real Madrid counter-attacking, only instead of Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo it was Alli, Kane and Eriksen – with Casemiro exposed again. He had changed positions at half-time from holding midfielder to centre-back, and didn’t seem to know where he was supposed to be. Eric Dier had made the same switch far more convincingly.
Pedro Mijatovic (right) did not think Madrid would save anything, even when Ronaldo scored
Ronaldo pulled a goal back for Madrid in the 80th minute against Tottenham
Analyst Jorge Valdano described Harry Kane as ‘so strong and yet also very intelligent’
Kane didn’t score against Madrid but underlined his credentials against Zidane’s side
That was more ammunition for those ready to batter Zidane. Does he work these things on the training ground as well as Pochettino? Even when you have seven trophies in the bank from just 19 months of work, the credit runs out fast at Madrid. This was his heaviest defeat in charge of the team.
Back in the radio commentary booth Mijatovic was asked if he though Madrid might salvage something from the game after Ronaldo pulled a goal back.
‘No, Tottenham are a serious team,’ came back the reply. ‘So strong and yet also very intelligent’ added Valdano about Kane on Spanish television.
In the post-match interviews, Zidane appeared to have aged considerably across the 90 minutes. Ronaldo – who never seems to get any older, even after this Champions League dressing down – said he was not concerned over his lack of goals overall this season.
Tottenham attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen celebrates scoring against Madrid
Brazil and Madrid full-back Marcelo (right) had an evening to forget against Tottenham
Ronaldo refuted concerns over his scoring but admitted he misses Gareth Bale
‘Google it,’ he told the reporter, ‘and you will see how many I have scored.’
There was a time when searches of Spurs v Madrid games only came up with tales of Tottenham woe. Steve Perryman put through his own net at White Hart Lane in 1985 when Madrid dumped them out of the UEFA Cup at the quarter-final stage. Harry Redknapp’s team were taken apart in 2011.
Before this year Tottenham had never scored against Spain’s most famous club. All that has changed now. Pochettino and his team full of English youngsters have made sure of that.