Tottenham Hotspur: choose your own adventure in the Champions League

We are in 2019. You are Mauricio Pochettino, director of Tottenham Hotspur, a medium-sized football club based in various locations in London. Never before, during the 64 years of the European Cup and the Champions League, Tottenham had been champion of Europe. This year, they qualify for the quarter-finals for the third time in their history. Few expect that they go much further.

But you have other ideas. Even if the odds are against your team, you know that in the final stages of the Champions League, it's about making the right choice at the right time. There are only five games left between your team and the ultimate glory. Go to THE BEGINNING to start your adventure in the Champions League. The best luck. You will need it.

The first leg of the quarterfinal is great. Manchester City, tournament favorites and masters of the known universe, is on the lookout. Before the game, the big tactical question is whether Tottenham will try to bring the match back to City at home in the first leg, as Liverpool did last season. Are you sending your team flying out of the blocks, hoping to ride a wave of noise and use partisan party atmosphere to your advantage? Or do you stay tight, knowing that a complete defeat would virtually settle the draw in less than 90 minutes?

To get into an attacking formation and try to hit it fast, go to OPTION TWO. To keep things tight, go to THIRD OPTION.

Excited by a large crowd in Tottenham Hotspur's bright new stadium, you are venturing into City with delight. The first 15 minutes of play give rise to many opportunities, with Ederson called to action several times. But as the first half progresses, City begins to look more secure. Shortly before half-time, Hugo Lloris pbaded the ball directly to Raheem Sterling, who scored.

The worse is yet to come. In the middle of the second half, the new sophisticated automatic beer faucets begin to malfunction, flooding the entire stadium with craft beer. As players struggled to find their footing on increasingly sticky, beer-soaked ground, Jan Vertonghen dominated a back pbad and Sergio Aguero managed to pbad the score at 2-0.

The return leg at Etihad Stadium is a disappointing anticlimax, City performing a lukewarm and blank draw with 100% ball possession, consisting solely of Ederson, Aymeric Laporte and John Stones who pbaded the ball between them for 90 minutes.

Your Champions League adventure ends here.

By keeping 11 men behind the ball and refusing the space of the city, you win a 1-1 draw in your new home, a moody game characterized by a number of contentious controversial points. Leroy Sane opened the scoring in the 51 minutes when Hugo Lloris was thrown a cheese wheel in the stands. Later, as Tottenham strives to equalize, a lighting device falls from the stadium's rafters and hits Harry Kane as he prepares to score.

In the face of protests from City players, the Spanish referee awards Tottenham a penalty that the experts will later call soft. "He deceived the referee there," complained on the radio an ex-player Arsenal. "Look how it leans forward, maximizing the potential area for any potential contact with the lighting system. He went looking for that one, I'm afraid. "

Kane's penalty is worth a 1-1 draw at Tottenham. But before the second leg, the well-known Tottenham injury crisis resurfaces. With Eric Dier, Harry Winks and Victor Wanyama, you have a decision to make in the middle of the field.

To play Christian Eriksen in a deeper role alongside Moussa Sissoko, go to OPTION FOUR. To play Sissoko as a simple pivot and opt for a more direct style, go to OPTION FIVE.

With Eriksen deployed alongside Sissoko in a midfield two, Tottenham has a lot of numbers behind the ball but no obvious outlet in possession of the ball. Eriksen is too deep to form the game, and on the rare occasions when Tottenham can relieve City's relentless pressure, their only option is to hope for long balls up Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min. City wins 2-0 without sweating and then you use your press conference to advocate with his president Daniel Levy for world-clbad midfield reinforcement this summer. He responds by having Fulham, Tom Cairney, sign a loan for the current season, after an initial offer of £ 6 million for Jack Grealish is rejected in a statement by the Aston Villa club as a "deadly insult." ".

Your Champions League adventure ends here.

The first half-hour is lousy viewing. The Spurs are overwhelmed in the middle of the field and only the brilliance of Hugo Lloris prevents the game from scoring. Then, in the second half, something strange happens. After Fernandinho's shot from distance – 33rd in the match – Moussa Sissoko finds himself with the ball on the edge of his own box. Ignoring your instances of the sideline, he avoids two tackles with a silky bend, gallops into the city half, stumbles on the ball, wins it again, and then crushes a 25-meter crier that he will later admit. shyly to Des Kelly. on BT Sport was actually a heel attempt.

You are in the semifinals. Go to OPTION SIX.

The future of Christian Eriksen dominates the preparations for the semifinal against Juventus, which is trying to destabilize you by throwing a daring bid of 100 million pounds sterling for the player in the week of the match. Despite a frank and honest conversation in your office where you try to convince him to continue using your special purple energy crystals, Eriksen makes it clear that he wants to leave. Which, with the lingering injury crisis in the middle of the field, leaves you with a dilemma. Can you afford to let your most creative player outside of your biggest game of the season? Or do the risks of playing at Eriksen outweigh the potential benefits?

To choose Eriksen, go to OPTION SEVEN. To let him out, go to Option 8.

Distracted and disinterested, Tottenham clinched a crushing 4-1 defeat at home, thanks to a miracle strike by Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Dier's sleight of hand. But the final humiliation comes in the first leg at the Allianz stadium, when Eriksen (left out of the traveling team) emerges at halftime under a Juventus jersey, posing as an enthusiastic crowd and having a picture taken with Andrea Agnelli and Pavel Nedved. Eriksen will spend four seasons at Juventus, making only 71 appearances, including 48 in replacement, before signing for Everton.

Your Champions League adventure ends here.

With Eriksen sulking on the sidelines, Tottenham wins a thrilling 2-1 victory in Turin, with teenager Oliver Skipp playing the game of his life in an anchor role in midfield. Finishing his 108 badists and taking the upper hand over Miralem Pjanic and Blaise Matuidi in the midfield of Juventus, the next morning Gazzetta dello Sport greets 'Il Maestro Skipp' on the front page, calling on Juventus to abandon his interest in Eriksen and sign Skipp instead. Skipp signed an early exchange deal with Moises Kean and will end up spending two seasons at Juventus, making only 14 appearances, including 10 in replacement, before signing for Bournemouth.

Unlikely, impossible, Tottenham has reached the first final of the Champions League in its history. Go to NEW OPTION.

On the morning of June 1, North Korean troops cross the 38th parallel and launch a surprise onslaught by land and air on South Korean territory. While international leaders are queuing to condemn the unprovoked attack, the state of emergency is immediately declared in South Korea, all men under 40 – even those living in the United States Foreigners – being immediately enlisted in the national defense forces.

When Tottenham players get together to have breakfast in their Madrid hotel before the Champions League final against Barcelona, ​​a player stands out for his absence. A club official was quickly sent to Son Heung-Min's room and found it completely empty, except for a plate of tagliatelle that had been abandoned and half eaten by room service. On closer inspection, it seems that the tagliatelle has been arranged deliberately. When the sauce is removed and the plate is returned, the words: "Send help" are clearly written in the pasta.

With Harry Kane injured after a recurring injury in his lighting system, you have a choice.

To play Fernando Llorente at the front, go to OPTION TEN. To launch a daring rescue mission against the Korean special forces a few hours before the Champions League final, go to OPTION ELEVEN.

Deprived of your two main scorers, one by collapsing infrastructure and the other by military rendition, you are asking your players to go out and win the Champions League for their fallen comrades. You get an encouraging start, too. The young Oliver Skipp will play his farewell match before joining Juventus. Llorente has a few goals in mind, even managing to place one of them on the right side of the corner flag and receiving a salvo of warm applause.

But maybe the efforts of the last few weeks have finally begun to catch up with you. As Tottenham begins to tire, Barcelona is decisive in the second half, sealing a 3-0 win with a superb goal from Lionel Messi. After the match, you win a ban on the sidelines of six matches and a fine of € 100,000 from UEFA for hitting an interviewer who asks if you still need a trophy to prove your value to the Spurs.

The next morning, Son Heung-Min is parade on national television, wearing a shirt from Bayern Munich and waving Uli Hoeness with warmth. So it was not Korean special forces.

Your Champions League adventure ends here.

Immediately, you cancel the scheduled pre-match march and start developing a battle plan. Judging by the temperature of the still warm soup, you calculate that Son can not be gone for more than an hour or so. In addition, you are almost certain that because of the reinforced security measures in place, the kidnappers will not attempt to escape by air, but by land or by sea. You call some contacts from Espanyol and ask them to keep the ports on the east coast.

Meanwhile, you and the players roam the local campaign looking for evidence of earthly escape. Ben Davies' heart-breaking endurance makes him a natural candidate as an advanced scout. Shortly after, he returned and reported unusual tire tracks in a field to the north.

Tire tracks rise in the mountains. After several kilometers of walking, which is enough to Erik Lamela to hurt again, you come across a large deserted hacienda, almost darkened by trees. Upon entering the main atrium, an extraordinary show welcomes you. The kidnappers are not visible anywhere, but at least 30 men in Tottenham 's training gear are seated, each of them having exactly the image of Son Heung – Min.

When they see you, they all get up and ask to be saved. Slowly, he begins to understand what happened. These South Korean special forces have not infiltrated your hotel but in North Korea: try to repel the minds of the most famous enemy athlete before he can come back to boost their morale. In addition, the badailants hid the real Son in a look-alike room to discourage any rescue attempt. Some similarities are better than others, but the fundamental problem remains: you have no idea which of these men is the true Son.

But the moment you curse your situation, the hand of Kieran Trippier rises. "Boss, I have an idea," he says. Suddenly, Dele Alli's hand lifts as well. "Boss, me too," he says.

In the distance, you can hear the faint roar of a 4×4 that climbs the mountain. You realize with a sagging heart that the kidnappers are back and you do not have time to hear both ideas. Now you have the choice.

To hear Trippier's suggestion, go to TWELVE OPTION. To hear Dele's, go to OPTION THIRTEEN.

"OK, Trips," you say. "What's the idea of ​​finding the real Sonny?"

Trippier looks confused.

"No, I did not mean that, boss," he replies. "I meant for tonight. You know how we always listen to this Argentinian music in the bus on land? Nothing is against Argie, that's obvious, but me and the guys have created a playlist that could give us a little more for the game. Drake, J Cole, Kid Cudi, a little reggaeton for the Spaniards. Listen before saying no, huh?

As you are about to reprimand him, the doors open and soldiers armed with badault rifles flood the complex, surrounding you in seconds. Within hours, the entire Tottenham team was flown out of the country and put to work in a North Korean labor camp. Most players describe it as a welcome respite from their pre-season fitness sessions.

Your adventure in the Champions League (and your freedom) ends here.

"OK, Dele," you say. "What is the plan?"

"Well, boss," he says. "Now, you see, I was thinking of a quick challenge of football skills. But we do not have time for that, and besides we do not have a ball. Then I thought of something else. Watch."

He goes to the nearest son of the Son and stretches out his hand. The impostor of the Son looks at him, empty. Dele moves on to the next and reaches out. Same answer. And the next, the next and the next. Finally, when he has walked through most of the room and wondered what he is doing, Dele reaches out to another son of his son, who instinctively hits him twice, the rubs with the back of the hand, reaches out his last two fingers, then pbades for the punch.

"Sonny!", Shout in unison unanimously, running to kiss their kidnapped winger. Standing on the edge of the group, you give an ironic smile. These stupid handshakes of goal celebration. Who knew that one day they would save you all?

Relieved and delighted, you rush to the stadium with barely time to change and warm up. But fueled by the adrenaline of your rescue mission and with His at the forefront of an attack training, consisting of 4-4-2, you take the final by the neck skin . Lucas Moura hits the ball close to 1-0. 15 minutes from the end, Toby Alderweireld launches a quick counterattack. His sprint around Gerard Pique's outside, tiring, and slid the ball in the opposite direction. Tottenham is 2-0 and is on the verge of the most unlikely triumph of the Champions League in recent years.

There are only a few seconds of normal time left when you hear a strange roar. Unbeknownst to you or the players, your daring rescue of Son in the mountains has had serious repercussions on the Korean peninsula. Outraged by your act of sabotage, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un launched an immediate missile strike on the Wanda Metropolitano, and even in most known countries. The last thing you see before the whole planet is consumed by a giant fireball is the fourth official elevating his chart to show four minutes of extra time. That's how close you were. That's how close we were.

Your adventure in the Champions League, and all of humanity, ends here.