Did you ever hear about the time the teenage Dele Alli nutmegged Luka Modric? August 2015, to be precise, for Spurs in the Audi Cup at the Allianz Arena, Munich. Alli was 19, a £5m signing from Milton Keynes Dons thrown into the deep end against Real Madrid, and at least he was courteous enough not to ruffle Modric’s hair, Gazza-style, as he slipped the ball through his opponent’s legs. Modric, he recalls, collared him in the tunnel and called him a “little bugger”. Though the suspicion remains that he might have toned down the language.
OK, in the grand scheme of things, it will not count for a lot, nearly three years on, when England meet Croatia in Moscow on Wednesday for a place in a World Cup final. All the same, there was something strangely reassuring, from an English perspective, to hear Alli regaling this story.
Written by Daniel Taylor in Repino
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/09/dele-alli-england-croatia-world-cup-nutmeg-modric-semi-final under the title “Dele Alli: It would be nice to nutmeg Luka Modric again for England | Daniel Taylor”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
