Scared to look at the papers today? You bet! And with good reason. Peter Crouch will wish he had pulled an Aaron Lennon and chickened out before kick-off because the cut-throat wordsmiths all have their pen-knives out and the logically challenged striker gets a deserved verbal kicking.
I don't blame Crouch exclusively for what happened last night. In fact, his sending off forced us to play with the ball on the ground and build from the back, rather than just lumping the ball forward. The way we dealt with the remainder of the first half was admirable but with only 10 men, fatigue was bound to set in and, for that, Crouch has to shoulder some responsibility.
The morning after the night before, and our recent results can no longer be twisted into having one eye on a glory, glory night; now they just look like a bad run. Sky Sports continues to play that advert for the road to the Champions League Final at Wembley but suddenly the feeling of involvement has all but evaporated. The season goes on regardless, and we need an almighty dusting down session before the Stoke game at the Lane on Saturday.
Games thick and fast, that's what suits Spurs best, right? Ten-day breaks between games certainly haven't seemed to work. We do relish our chances as the underdogs, however, and after this rotten run of results we are certainly underdogs to get back into the Top 4.
The European adventure has felt all along like we were flying by the seat of our pants; prevailing despite injuries and unfamiliar gameplans and still proving our worth on countless occasions. When you live on the edge, sometimes you fall off with a bump.
The rest of the season is now going to be about character; what's done is done and it is up to those who have played badly or made mistakes to dig in and find that something extra. I wouldn't say that the Champions League is a total lost cause - if any Spurs team can overturn this sort of deficit, it's this one - but it's unlikely. Very unlikely.
For now, we're going to have to put up with the sneers and the jibes. Men versus boys, finally found out, simply not good enough; you know, that sort of thing. The best tonic is a good performance and more importantly now a good result.
But there is another cure for the Bernabeu Blues:
On opening a Christmas card from my girlfriend, what should fall out but a copy of Spurs v Inter Milan. Immediately I stuck in it the DVD player and rewatched the game in its entirety. I then watched the highlights and then homed in on what I've come to call Bale's goal, watching it over and over. I watched it again last night.
Of course, we all know it wasn't Bale who applied the finishing touch but that third goal against the Champions League holders is as much the Welshman's as anyone else's.
From Younes Kaboul's interception, the touch to Bale, the quick thinking as he knocks the ball past Maicon and the audible gasp of crowd anticipation as he gives chase, the perfect ball across the box, again the crowd volume soars as 35,000 realise we're actually going to beat Inter Milan, Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In and Andy Gray stating "I have never, ever, seen a player do what he does." The whole thing constitutes a wonderful moment that sums up our season in Europe.
Nobody realistically expected us to win at the Bernabeu, yet everybody knew we might just get hammered. Next time you see an advert for the Wembley final, or a negative newspaper column, don't look back to last night, because it's not the sum total of what we've achieved along the way.
True glory may be out of our reach for the time being but being a football fan is as much about glorious moments as glory itself, so before you turn your attentions to Stoke and our end of season run-in, take some time to reflect on what we've done along the way. You won't be disappointed.
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