stealthpapes Fair enough, I get the feeling that the caveat "but played a reserve team" comes up too often as well.
I've no idea how the Spanish, Germans and Italians approach it but I'd hazard a guess that Premier League sides play more weakened sides than they do. That probably does account for our record of losing to the so called lesser lights of the competition.
I didn't want to use that as an excuse for them though, hence only mentioning it relation to that Spurs defeat to a very good Dortmand side when they certainly threw all their eggs into the one league basket with the team selection away in their first leg.
It's a much better record against the big league sides than I'd thought though.
