Today is the biggest game I can remember for Spurs in the last 19 years, with the opportunity to progress to the group stages of the Champions League for the first time.  Our only other foray into European Club Football’s biggest competition was back in the 1961/62 season in the old European Cup, when Tottenham made the semi-finals.

I should be confident, I’m told.  After all. a 3-2 loss away from home in Europe isn’t a bad result, especially after clawing back from a 3-0 deficit. We have two away goals, so a 1-0 or 2-1 home win puts us through. Surely Tottenham can do this…right? It all depends on whether the team comes out and shows the strength and grit that got them past Stoke on Saturday, or with the comedy defending and schoolboy mistakes which marked the first half an hour of the first leg.

Do I think we’ll do it? Honestly, I just don’t know.

Defoe is struggling with a groin injury and will be limited, Modric is out of the game entirely.  Up front, we’ll need players like Crouch and Keane to step up and take their chances.  In defence, Ledley King’s presence should stop the leakiness to some extent, assuming he’s fit enough.  William “Arsenal Reject” Gallas isn’t eligible for this game as he wasn’t registered at the time of the first game, so we need Michael Dawson to show the confidence and domination in the air he displayed last season.  Hopefully, a couple of goals in the first 20 minutes will settle us down and we won’t have a nervy, tension-filled game to survive.  If Tottenham play well and have a couple of goals cushion, expect the crowd to be in good voice and taunting the Young Boys fans with chants like “What’s it like to play on grass?”; concede an early goal or have a slender advantage in the last quarter of the game, the supporters will be on edge and fearful of a “typical Tottenham” collapse.

If Spurs win, I’ll likely write something again very soon – in fact, I’ll probably be more excited than if i saw a double rainbow. If we get knocked out, well it’s probably best I don’t write anything for at least a couple of days, until I’ve talked myself into how we’ll now win the Europa League and it’s not a bad thing after all…

Less than six hours till kick  off and I am all kinds of nervous. I’ll be following the game as closely as I can from my desk, hopefully getting to watch it, but possibly just having to follow online commentaries and score alerts – and likely tweeting (@johnglally) till I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

I’ll leave it to the (rehashed) words of Red as he’s on a bus heading to the Mexican border hoping to meet up with Andy in Zihuatanejo to describe my feelings at the moment:

I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a Spurs fan can feel.  A Spurs fan at the start of a (hopefully) long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope we can make it to the group stages.  I hope to see Lionel Messi at the Lane and Ledley King shake his hand. I hope the Champions League music is as stirring as it has been in my dreams. I hope…