This week has seen teams from around Europe competing in the first legs of the playoff games for the last spots in this season’s Champions League and there have been some very good games and one or two interesting results.

One that was watched with some interest was the game between BSC Young Boys and Tottenham on Tuesday.

For years now, the “Big Four” in the English Premier League of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have pretty much dominated the Champions League spots and every season, the question is asked, “Can someone break into that top four?” and far more often than not, the answer is “No”.

However, after some terrific performances from Tottenham last season – particularly towards the end when they beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City they thoroughly deserved their fourth placed finish which meant that the really big European nights and chests filled with untold riches were heading to White Hart Lane.

That was the plan anyway but the Young Boys from Switzerland had to be sent to bed early before Spurs would take their place in the lucrative Champions League Group Stages.

The very name “Young Boys” has been the subject of a few jokes in England – it doesn’t exactly instill fear into the opposition does it? Perhaps though it's a tactical ploy to lull the opposition into a false sense of security and this definitely seemed the case when Spurs turned up at the Stade de Suisse full of confidence on Tuesday evening only to find themselves 3-0 down after less than half an hour!

The Champions League dream was looking very unlikely at that stage but Spurs performed a remarkable comeback to finish the match 3-2 which is not a bad score to be taking back to London for next week’s return leg and they will no doubt be confident of turning things round when they get there – I just doubt that it will be over-confidence.

The other game to catch the eye was Werder Bremen v Sampdoria. Werder Bremen have been in the news quite a lot over the summer largely because of their midfielder Mesut Ozil who was part of the exciting young German team in the World Cup and has been the subject of transfer speculation ever since. He finally sealed a move to Real Madrid this week (you can pre-order his Real Madrid shirt here) but Werder Bremen didn’t seem to miss him too much as they roared into a 3-0 lead before Sampdoria scored a last gasp consolation (or perhaps a lifeline?) to make the final score 3-1.

The second legs of all these ties will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday and then we will know who will be contesting this season’s Champion League but we won’t know the Group stages until the draw is made later this month.