Tottenham Hotspur manager Juande Ramos savoured the sweet taste of success after beating Chelsea 2-1 in the League Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
”It’s always a tremendous satisfaction to win a trophy but I would say this one has a special flavour to it because it was against a team who are supposedly superior to us,” said the Spaniard.
”It’s like when I was at Sevilla and we won against Barcelona or Real Madrid … it adds a special flavour.”
Chelsea were League Cup holders, having won the trophy under Jose Mourinho last season.
A 70th-minute penalty from Dimitar Berbatov cancelled out Didier Drogba’s 38th minute opener for Chelsea and Spurs won with a scrambled goal from defender Jonathan Woodgate four minutes into extra time.
”It’s a great satisfaction to win a trophy, especially for a club and the fans who haven’t had success for such a long time. For a club as big as Tottenham, a long time seems even longer,” Ramos said.
The Spaniard is going for a hat-trick of Uefa Cups after winning back-to-back titles with Sevilla and taking Spurs to the last 16 of this year’s competition. The League Cup win will send them into the Uefa Cup next season, regardless of their progress.
”Qualifying for Europe next season makes everything calmer now because it removes a huge pressure on the team,” he said.
Chelsea manager Avram Grant was unhappy with the penalty decision and said referee Mark Halsey had been too quick to blow the whistle at the end of the match with Chelsea on the attack.
”If handball is deliberate then OK but not every time a ball touches the hand is it a penalty,” Grant said of the second-half incident in which full back Wayne Bridge handled in the Tottenham penalty area. ”I think it was a rash decision.”
He added: ”[The referee] stopped the game when John Terry had passed to [Salomon] Kalou and Kalou was in front of goal.” — Reuters