Bale injury damages Tottenham's chances
A weekend in which AC Milan moved a step closer to ending their seven-year Serie A title drought has ended with the Rossoneri's chances of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2006-07 significantly boosted too following comments from Harry Redknapp.
The Tottenham manager has confirmed that Gareth Bale, scorer of a famous second-half hat-trick against Inter Milan at the San Siro earlier this season, will miss the first leg of their Champions League second round match against the Serie A table-toppers in Italy on Tuesday with a back injury.
The Welsh winger's best performances have come in Europe, with arguably the two finest saved for their clashes with Inter, but it's not all doom and gloom for the Lilywhites as they head abroad on a run of three straight victories, including impressive away ones at Blackburn and Sunderland.
Despite that, Spurs are [2.24] outsiders to progress to the quarter-finals in their first ever knockout campaign, with Massimiliano Allegri's side [1.8] to go through despite having their last two Champions League campaigns ended by Premier League teams at this point in the competition.
The seven-time European champions enjoyed a 4-0 stroll past Parma at the weekend with the goals coming so readily that they didn't even need main man Zlatan Ibrahimovic to get on the scoresheet.
That result coupled with Inter's 1-0 Derby d'Italia loss to Juventus has strengthened their prospects of domestic glory and allows them to focus on trying to make it to Wembley.
They are ranked above their neighbours, the holders, by Betfair punters as Italy's most likely winners yet as no club has succeeded another from the same country since Aston Villa took the trophy off of Liverpool in 1981-82, hefty odds of [25.0] are offered on them going all the way.
Think this is going to be Spurs' year? They are [30.0] to win it at Wembley...
Published: 14 Feb 2011
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