In addition to the average players in the squad raising their game, Rafael Van Der Vaart (VDV) and Gareth Bale have been revelations this season. VDV has been the creative force in our Champions League matches and has scored some big goals. Bale has captured the world's attention with his play out wide. Tonight he destroyed his opponent every time he had the ball, embarrassing Maicon (arguably one of the best defenders in the world). It was silly how he just ran past the Inter defenders at every opportunity as if they were standing still. You just don't see a player slicing through a defense at this level like Bale did tonight. What made his performance so memorable was that after he sliced open the defense, his final pass was inch-perfect, creating 2 of our 3 goals.
We are now probably 1 draw away from qualifying for the "sweet 16" phase of the world's top club competition. Heck, since we will win the tiebreaker against Inter, we could even win the group and get a favorable match up in the first round. We host Werder Bremen next and Inter host Twente. Most likely the home teams will win or at the very least draw. The way I figure it, as long as we don't lose our last 2 games we'll be in the next round. That is, 1 more point regardless of who it is against should see us through. I think we could win them both though.
As I've mentioned in the past, I'm just enjoying this ride considering where we were only 2 years ago.
Goals: VDV (18), Crouch (61), Pav (89)
