TEN YEARS ON…

IT’S ALREADY A DECADE AGO, BUT PAUL MILES LOOKS BACK ON OUR AMAZING FIRST-EVER FORAY INTO THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IN 2010/11 WITH PETER CROUCH, WHO PLAYED A KEY ROLE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY

- PETER CROUCH

Ten years on, that glory, glory night against Internazionale is still fresh in the memory.

Fans lucky enough to be at White Hart Lane on 2 November 2010, will never forget it. They can probably still picture Gareth Bale tearing down the left, Rafa van der Vaart’s early goal, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko’s tap-ins, the noise – the holders were spectacularly put to the sword as our famous old stadium rocked under the lights.

But that Champions League run was more than just Inter, Gareth and ‘Taxi for Maicon’. It was digging ourselves out of a hole in Switzerland, goals, goals and more goals, singing in the rain at the Lane, highs and lows in the San Siro and, ultimately, a red card and despair in the Bernabeu.

Crouchy was central to it all. The popular striker scored the famous winner at Manchester City in May 2010 that got us into the Champions League play-off, then a hat-trick in that play-off, our first goal in the group stage, another against Inter, the winner against Milan – and it was his red card that lef tus reeling against Real Madrid!

So, a decade on, here are his memories of 2010/11 and our run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League at our first attempt…

Play-off, first leg – 17.08.10 Young Boys 3-2 Spurs Play-off, second leg – 25.08.10 Spurs 4-0 Young Boys

We were in trouble at 3-0 down in Switzerland, but goals from Sebastian Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko dragged us back, and Crouchy bagged a hat-trick in the second leg to take us into the group stage…