I thought Madrid were a bit crap. Been dropping points, willy nilly, in the league too, right? What’s happened to them?
But yeah, group stages. Means very little. Nobody has arrived. Spurs impressed me more in the CL when Bale was tearing Inter a new one, 7 years ago.
I'm far from a Spurs apologist, but this 'it's the groups' thing is wide of the mark in that when the biggest sides lock horns they go out there with a point to prove and are up for the game before it even kicks off. I don't know how Spurs were regarded in Madrid's camp before the game, but Madrid went out there and played good stuff that lesser organised teams would have fallen to. Spurs' organisation and composure made them look like a proper CL-level team last night, and that's the first time I've thought that of Spurs, win or lose a game. It looked like they could play that same game again and even improve on it - which is expected of all CL-level teams - rather than it being the game of their lives or some one-off anomaly.
Giving the ball to Bale and having him roast an over-the-hill Maicon time and again is not the same as giving RM a game as a team, also. In one scenario, I'm thinking if Inter played them again, they switch out Maicon for someone who can at least keep up with Bale and then we'll see if the performance can be repeated, in what was seen last night, I've no doubt Spurs, as a cohesive unit, could go out there and do what they did again.
Also hate to say it, but Glaston is right here:
It means we will almost certainly progress to the knock-out stages, with a decent shot at topping the group. It means that Spurs as a team move forward with great confidence in their ability to give any team in the world a competitive game ... even when several of the first XI are missing. It also means that young players like Harry Winks and Davinson Sanchez will move forward in the knowledge that they can play on the biggest stages and not look out of place.
And - with reference to your mention of Bale - it means that, unlike when Bale was in the team, we are far less reliant on any single player to dig us out of a hole: the current squad is far more balanced - and has more depth and all-round talent - than the days of Bale.
That was never in doubt (for me at least), last season was the first time for many players. This improvement isn't a surprise, you're easily impressed I think.
The big games are a barometer of where a side is truly at. Before then, we can only guess and assume. Going to the Bernebau and matching off with a RM that needed the points and weren't going easy or disinterested in the match isn't something many teams will have a hope of doing in the CL. If RM had spanked them, nobody would have batted an eye and we'd all be laughing at Spurs and telling them they're still no match for the big boys.
Them giving a controlled and measured performance where they didn't look out of place against the back-to-back winners of the CL is something to take notice of. Yes, RM are not firing on all cylinders, but neither were Spurs. What we can say is they looked completely at home in the company of a team consisting of the likes of Ronaldo, Isco, Modric, Kroos, Marcelo all giving the game a proper go.
It has merit.
All of the talk before the game was Harry Kane, all of the talk after the game was Harry Kane. He scores most of your goals.
In terms of digging you out of holes, you might not be quite as reliant on him as you were on Bale, but it's not far off.
They are set up to provide Kane the platform. It's not the same thing as virtuoso just taking over and doing everything by himself. Delli-Ali's absence was felt by Kane, for example as he couldn't make the same runs or dummy moves he could without the aforementioned providing the distractions he has come to rely on. Kane isn't like Bale in this Spurs side - he's the final cog in a well-oiled attack, not the be-all and end-all of it.