Jamie Carragher says Spurs deciding to fly out early for the 2019 Champions League final “made me question whether they were doing the right thing”.
Spurs reached their first European Cup final by beating Ajax in dramatic circumstances in May 2019.
They faced Premier League rivals Liverpool the following month in Madrid, flying out from Stansted Airport on the Wednesday for the following Saturday’s final.
Liverpool, however, departed on the Friday to ensure that they treated the final like any other European game.
Jurgen Klopp’s side would emerge 2-0 victors on the evening to lift their sixth European Cup, while Spurs were left dejectedly fondling their runners-up medals.
Carragher feels that the decision to leave for Madrid so early put them at an immediate disadvantage.
“In each of the Champions League finals I played in, we travelled two days before rather than one day,” he told The Athletic.
“The game was on a Wednesday and we went to Istanbul on the Monday. That’s a lot of time to kill. The wait seems to last forever.
“If I had the choice, I’d travel the day before because that’s the routine in the Champions League, so you’re sort of used to it. Why do anything differently?
“When I heard Tottenham went to Madrid two or three nights before last season’s final, it made me question whether they were doing the right thing. I know it’s the biggest game of your life but there’s a danger you sit in your room over-thinking what might happen.
“To try and stop that happening in Istanbul and in Athens two years later, we went ten-pin bowling.”
We could not keep away from the camera for long so we made a Football365 Isolation Show. Watch it, subscribe and share until we get back in the studio/pub and produce something a little slicker…
Click Here: New Zealand rugby store