Villas-Boas saw his side progress to the knockout stages of the Europa League last night with a 3-1 win over Panathinaikos and then declared his excitement at the prospect of facing Chelsea later in the tournament.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese, who was sacked by Chelsea after little over eight months in charge, believes the west London should not be allowed into the tournament, however, as he reckons finishing third in a Champions League group should mean a complete exit from European competition altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s extremely unfair,\u201d the Tottenham Hotspur manager said. \u201cIt would be much fairer if the clubs came into the Europa League when they are knocked out of the last 16 of the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t give a bonus to teams who have failed, and in the situation as it stands, teams fail in the Champions League and are promoted to the Europa League, which, in my opinion, is a massive bonus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve not made this up today. I have said this in Uefa meetings before. It\u2019s up to them to decide but I think it\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea exited the Champions League on Wednesday night despite a 6-1 win against Nordsjaelland, and they will now be seeded for the knockout stages of Europe\u2019s second-biggest club competition, which Villas-Boas won with Porto in 2010.<\/p>\n
Villas-Boas took Chelsea through to the second round of the Champions League before he was sacked following the club\u2019s first-leg defeat by Napoli.<\/p>\n
Chelsea, now managed by Rafael Benitez, then went on to win the tie before lifting the Champions League for the first time in their history under Roberto Di Matteo.<\/p>\n
Villas-Boas thinks destiny could pit him and his former employers against each other in the last 16 of the competition should Spurs beat their next opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s destiny. Hopefully if we go through we can meet each other,\u201d said Villas-Boas, who will learn who his team plays next on December 20.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a team that can win the trophy, so they will be up to the late stages of the competition. We hope to do so. If we cross it is going to be two magnificent games for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
It looked for a while like Spurs would not make the knockout stages last night as they struggled to edge past a determined Panathinaikos side urged on by their raucous travelling support.<\/p>\n
Spurs, who needed just a draw to progress, looked nervous despite taking the lead through Emmanuel Adebayor and Pana hit back with a deserved equaliser from Zeca.<\/p>\n
Toche missed a good chance to put the Greeks ahead, and Spurs eventually went on to seal the win thanks to an unlucky own goal from Orestis Karnezis and Jermain Defoe\u2019s 13th strike of the season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Villas-Boas saw his side progress to the knockout stages of the Europa League last night with a 3-1 win over Panathinaikos and then declared his excitement at the prospect of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n