Baptista: Games against Spurs lack emotion

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
24 Jan	8:00 PM	LC	Tottenham Hotspur (A)	2	2	Draw

Julio Baptista has made the surprising remark that games against bitter rivals Tottenham lack passion and intensity.

The Brazillian international scored an own goal and two more to set up a mouth-watering second leg in the Carling Cup on Wednesday, but said that the hostile atmosphere at White Hart Lane was nothing compared to the rivalry in Spain.

Baptista said: "The rivalry between the two teams is huge, but it is different from Spain. People there are more emotional, the passion is more evident.

"When Madrid play Barcelona the world goes crazy, everyone talks about the game, the whole country is involved, all the people want to be there to watch the game, and friends keep asking for tickets."

"That came home to me the other night when I watched the first leg. It was such a clean game, very different to when I played.

"Back then, there were tackles that would not only get people sent from the field but probably from the country!

"There is more accent on skill now and that suits me. I would love the chance to show what I can do."

User Comments

Rombosia

Posted on 30 Jan, 2007 at 05:30 AM - Reply

Heh heh heh heh!!

That is because in spain Barca n Real Madrid are at the top competeing for honours. The same goes for Intermilan and AC Milan. Top clubs!

Spurs are a perpetual middle table team. Pretenders to greatness. It is more of jealous neighbours than anything else.

aabbs

Posted on 30 Jan, 2007 at 01:23 AM - Reply

Probably agree with other comments, but 2 be honest i always listen out 4 the spurs score, maybe Arsenal Chelsea could be the main rivalry in london, but u cant compare any rivalry with barcalona madrid, celtic rangers, those teams represent peoples, religons, politics, what do Arsenal and spurs represent apart from north london??? spurs may represent jews, but arsenal have more jewish fans than spurs these days, i dont know. Every arsenal fans got 2 admit, it feels good to beat spurs!!!

aabbs

Posted on 30 Jan, 2007 at 01:18 AM - Reply

Its true, Arsenal Spurs is not the biggest rivalry in England let alone the world, but i do hate spurs, and it is the biggest rivalry in london, some of the foreighn players not born and bred over here might not get it, but for the fans, this is the big 1. Wouldnt it be good if spurs were actually challenging for the title, and we done them???
last year was beutiful when we pipped them to the last champs league position, speacilly after their poor sportsmanshp at highbury!!!!

Sunaadh

Posted on 29 Jan, 2007 at 06:08 PM - Reply

Well, Madrid vs Barcelona is a battle between equals; for the most part anyway.

Can't say the same about Spurs.

tipx

Posted on 29 Jan, 2007 at 01:23 PM - Reply

i agree with him, Arsenal and spurs games are a little bit over hyped, the rivalry isnt as big as the rivalry between us and manu IMHO.

Spurs fan want it to be a rivalry but i has an arsenal fan am not really bothered,when was the last time they beat us?

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