Phew.
Okay.
Okay.
Phew.
In the end, this will be remembered as a game dominated by the two keepers - Navas kept out three great chances from our lads, and Hugo came out f*cking *godlike* on our end. We could have won it. We also could have lost it.
In the end, we got an entirely fair result. Lloris was imperious, but he wasn't the only one - Sanchez and Toby were both almost perfect today, and Jan did a great job on the left after some early nerves. Winks - wow. Winks was bloody superb. Distributed it like a f*cking metronome, almost never lost it, was a terrier defensively, and looked completely unfazed when up against not just Ronaldo, but also Isco, Modric and Casemiro - at times it was 4 against 1, and he came out f*cking shining.
Kane grafted away up front, and looked at ease competing at this level - Llorente grew into the game, and provided three chances at the end that we probably should have put away. Aurier had Marcelo in his pocket the whole game, and, error for the goal aside, never looked out of place. And Sissoko was good too - did well with powerful running up front, covered Aurier really well on the right, and finally looked comfortable with his team-mates. His technique still let him down a few times, but he held his own against Real f*cking Madrid, and that's a positive in my book.
Poch made a big gamble today - a totally unfamiliar sort of formation and system that could have seen us smashed. But he dared. And he did. And we took an entirely deserved point from the Bernabeu.
Hats off to Poch. Hats off to lads. Hats off to the away fans, who were superb - I heard them throughout, loud, clear and proud. And hats off to Tottenham Hotspur, for securing a point at the Bernabeu.
Now...bring them back to Wembley, and let's f*cking do 'em. No more nerves, no more unease. We can compete at this level. We can do this lot like we've done any number of teams at home.
Today, we made our debut at the highest level of the club game. And now, we have no more nerves to fear.