Real travel to White Hart Lane brimming with confidence
after demolishing Spurs 4-0 in the first leg of their quarterfinal last week,
while Barca go to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine 5-1 up.
Barring the most unlikely of events, Real and Barca will
meet each other in European competition for the first time since 2002.
Real coach Jose Mourinho, publicly at least, has paid
Spurs and English soccer the greatest respect by saying only an English team
could overturn a four-goal deficit.
If that is true, then that club are Spurs, who have
dazzled in their debut season in the Champions League with some stunning
fightbacks and re-kindled a flickering light from the past.
After Manchester United, Spurs were English soccer's
trailblazers in Europe in the early 1960s when they became the first British
side to win a European trophy, beating Atletico Madrid 5-1 in the European Cup
Winners' Cup final in 1963.
A year earlier Spurs reached the semi-finals of the
European Cup when their manager Bill Nicholson, paying his respects to the
all-conquering Real team of Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas, decided his
team should change to an all-white kit for European games.
Real, some years later, became the first away team in 24
years ever to win a European tie at White Hart Lane when they beat holders
Spurs 1-0 in the UEFA Cup in 1985 - and are easily equipped to score another
win on Wednesday.
However, although Spurs are almost certain to go out,
they will not go down without showing the spirit that has been a feature of
their Champions League adventure which ended almost before it started back in
August.
Spurs were 3-0 down after 28 minutes of the first leg of
their qualifying playoff against Young Boys in Berne before losing 3-2 and then
qualifying for the group stage with a 4-0 win in the second leg in London.
In the group stage they were losing 4-0 at halftime to
holders Inter Milan before a Gareth Bale hat trick in the second half pulled
the score back to 4-3. Spurs then beat Inter 3-1 in the return in London.
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said: "It has been a
great experience so far and I am sure it will be a great experience on
Wednesday. We will give it our best shot and see what happens."
They will have to do that without striker Peter Crouch,
sent off last week, while Real Madrid will be without the suspended Pepe.
Mourinho, though, can also call on Karim Benzema in
attack after his recovery from an injury he suffered playing for France, and he
could replace Emmanuel Adebayor, whose two headers last week set Real on their
way to their emphatic win.
1-Heurelho Gomes; 32-Benoit
Assou-Ekotto, 4-Younes Kaboul, 20-Michael Dawson, 22-Vedran Corluka; 3-Gareth
Bale, 14-Luka Modric, 8-Jermaine Jenas, 11-Rafael van der Vaart; 18-Jermain
Defoe, 9-Roman Pavlyuchenko
1-Iker Casillas; 4-Sergio Ramos,
18-Raul Albiol, 2-Ricardo Carvalho, 12-Marcelo; 14-Xabi Alonso, 24-Sami
Khedira; 22-Angel Di Maria, 23-Mesut Ozil, 7-Cristiano Ronaldo; 9-Karim
Benzema.
