In soccer scoreboards news, we review a recent interview with Peter Crouch.

First of all, Peter was asked about Champions league football and the effect it has had on Tottenham Hotspur. He said that the whole team is incredibly excited to be in the Champions league. They have made it through the qualifying competition into the group stage, but they are really desperate to get into the last eight. They thought they had lost it in Switzerland after they were defeated in the first leg, but a terrific performance in the return tie won the game for them. In this game the soccer scoreboards showed that he scored a hat-trick, and Peter said that on a personal level this game was one of the best moments in his footballing career.

For Peter, the Champions league is the best club competition in the world. He first had a taste of it when playing for Liverpool. The quality of players, atmosphere at the games, and general furor surrounding them makes the competition unique for him. He mentioned that any small mistake or slight lapse of concentration will be punished in Champions league games, whilst in Premier league games you can sometimes get away with it.

Peter considers that Tottenham Hotspur is one of the very biggest clubs in England as it has such a great history and tradition. The club has not had the success in recent years of the ‘top 4’, but the quality of the players it has now and the number of youngsters coming through the ranks gives plenty of reasons to suppose that major success is not far away. He is particularly complimentary of the Van der Vaart, who has brought great experience to the squad, and Sandro, a young player who holds great promise.

Regarding the number of fixtures clubs have to play now, he said that it is more of a concern for managers than for the players. Tottenham has a very big squad so the manager will make full use of it over the season. All the players want to get games, but they have to understand that the nature of the game nowadays means that they will only play in certain percentage of them. Certainly it’s not like a couple of decades ago when squads were much smaller and everyone got a lot of games.

Peter said that Spurs aim to get beyond the group stages this year, and that anything beyond that would be a huge bonus. The semi finals would be a massive achievement, and it is well within the realms of possibility if the team really gels this season. The priorities for the season are to get to the knockout stages of the Champions league, and to finish in the top four once more in the Premier league. He commented on the difficulties with this: Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa all have strong squads and all have a good chance of getting into the top 4 too.

For more information on Peter Crouch, go to:
en.wikipedia.org