TOTTENHAM take a near unassailable advantage back to their new stadium for the visit of Austrian side Wolfsberger.
Spurs won 4-1 in the first leg last week and play the second tonight, 24 hours BEFORE the traditional Europa League fixture night of Thursday.
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Follow all of the latest updates below…
TOTTENHAM STARTING XI
Looks like Jose Mourinho has opted for his tried and trusted 4-2-3-1 this evening:
12. Hart, 2. Doherty, 4. Alderweireld, 15. Dier, 33. Davies, 17. Sissoko, 8. Winks, 11. Lamela, 20. Dele, 23. Bergwijn, 45. Vinicius
BEN DAVIES ON MOURINHO
“This is my first experience with… obviously this is the first time I’ve worked under Jose Mourinho and somebody with his footballing CV and his pedigree in the game, what he’s won, it’s his way of working, and as players we have to buy into that.
“You could have said two months ago that we were looking like we were on top of the world.
This is football, I think you’ll always have different managers with different ways of working, you’ll always have different results, and different periods of challenges along the way.
“He will set us up the way that he wants to, we have full respect and belief in the way that he’s working, and as players it’s up to us to stand up, really, we’ve got to put our best foot forwards, as best as we can.”
MOURINHO ON DANIEL LEVY
“My relationship is the same since day one which is a relationship of respect and open communication. Nothing changed in relation to that.
“We communicate every day and we respect each other and I believe that we share the feeling, we aren’t happy with the results but that doesn’t create any contradiction with us because we feel both exactly the same.
“My work is directly with the players, with the staff, the first team, the medical team, the kitman, analysts, I believe that we share the same feelings which is nobody is happy, nobody is depressed but everybody believes that we will do better and everybody believes that better things are waiting for us.”
MOURINHO ON SPURS’ POOR LEAGUE FORM
“It’s a positive thing that you say I am not used to it and my career is being the opposite of this.
“That’s a great thing. But I want to know which coach in the end of his career can say everything was blue sky and never a little bit grey or cloudy or even dark.
“Unless it’s a coach that was always in dominant clubs where the clubs were always the top clubs in countries and then it’s more difficult to have difficult moments but I think just show how beautiful my career has been.
“Does this make me happy? No. Does this make me depressed? Not at all. It’s a challenge.”
YOUNGSTERS SET TO GET THEIR CHANCE
MOURINHO ON BALE
“He is a player with special qualities; you could see against West Ham in the second 45 minutes the positive impact in the quality of the game.
“He had a cross, he had a couple of assists, he hit the crossbar. He is doing that better and better, but he is not playing 90 minutes, he is not playing every game.
“We have to manage his evolution. But he has nothing at all to convince me about.
“We play Wolfsberger, then we play Burnley, Fulham midweek, Crystal Palace at home and then hopefully we play Europa League again. We play 10 matches – seven plus three – in March.
“That’s seven for us at the club plus three for the national team. Our players are going to be on a 10-match run in March which is something absolutely crazy, and Gareth is a special example of a player we need to take care of.
“I can tell you that at this moment Gareth is playing all the minutes that he can and that we feel are good for his evolution.”
MOURINHO ON WOLFSBERG
“We want of course to qualify, that’s the most important thing. But when you in a bad run of results you need victories and I believe what everybody wants in that dressing room is not just to qualify, but to win the match.
“In football anything is possible and you always have to be respecting the nature of football and the nature of sport and know anything can happen. But the reality is a 4-1 victory away is very good.
“So it’s not about losing 3-0 or 2-0 and qualifying, it’s about qualifying and winning the match. So our approach will be very similar to the first leg. We go there with a strong side.
We go with a bench to help us turn the direction of a game if we need to and at the same time with three or four young players we would love to give the chance to play minutes with the first team.”
MIDWEEK MATCHDAY
LINKS AND TRIVIA CONTINUED
Tottenham have now scored 97 goals in the UEFA Europa League proper – the same number as Arsenal – and have the opportunity to become the first English club to reach a century.
Wolfsberg midfielder Christopher Wernitznig celebrates his 31st birthday on the day of the game.
Spurs are one of six former UEFA Cup winners in this season’s round of 32 – along with Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Napoli, PSV Eindhoven and Shakhtar Donetsk. Manchester United (2016/17) are the only club in the field to have won the UEFA Europa League.
Wolfsberg are one of five clubs making their first appearance in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase this season, along with Antwerp, Granada, Hoffenheim and Leicester City.
LINKS AND TRIVIA
First-leg scorer Bale, who also converted a penalty in the 3-3 draw at LASK in the group stage, has played three times against Austria for Wales, scoring in the first, a 2-1 friendly win in Swansea on 6 February 2013.
Son has scored in all three of Spurs’ games against Austrian opposition this season.
Spurs manager Mourinho’s only experience of the UEFA Europa League prior to this season was in 2016/17, when his Manchester United side lifted the trophy. His one season managing in the UEFA Cup also ended in glory as he steered Porto to victory in 2002/03.
Tottenham’s sixth appearance in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase is a record for an English club. They became the first Premier League side to chalk up 50 matches in the competition proper on Matchday 2.
SPURS V WOLFSBERG
GOOD AFTERNOON
Welcome to our live blog of Tottenham v Wolfsberg
Spurs have one foot in the last 16 of the Europa League after winning the first leg 4-1 in Budapest; Jose Mourinho’s side will now be looking to finish the job on home soil.
Tottenham will be confident of bouncing back with a morale boosting win after losing 2-1 to West Ham on Sunday, a defeat that left them nine points adrift of the fourth placed Hammers.
Giovani Lo Celso and Serge Aurier are the only injury absentees for the hosts this evening; Joe Rodon is not available after he was left out of Spurs’ Europa League squad.
The likes of Heung-min Son, Harry Kane, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Tanguy Ndombele are all set to be rested with Spurs virtually assured of going through.
Carlos Vinicius is set to return to the starting line-up, the Brazilian striker came on as a substitute and scored in the first leg.
Mourinho may start Japhet Tanganga at centre-back in order to rest Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier.
Wolfsberg will be without Eliel Peretz and Sven Sprangler due to injury, however midfielder Mario Leitgeb who missed the first leg is in contention to start.
Dario Vizinger is set to start up front for the visitors after scoring in Wolfsberg’s 2-1 win over Sturm Graz on Sunday.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
