Europa League LIVE: Tottenham Hotspur’s knockout campaign kicks off in the Netherlands
Ange Postecoglou has won a trophy in the second full season of every job he’s ever had – and he’s made a point of reminding people of that over in England, at great risk of ridicule. But Tottenham Hotspur are out of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, and are no hope of winning the Premier League, so to keep that streak going – to really get one over his many critics – Spurs have to win the Europa League.
That mission begins this morning, with the first of seven matches standing between them and the trophy. (All bar the final, to be played in Bilbao, will be played over two legs. Do the math.)
Ange Postecoglou celebrates with his players after their Carabao Cup first-leg win over Liverpool.Credit: Getty Images
If they can get past AZ Almaar and to the next stage they’ll face either Ajax or Eintracht Frankfurt. The only other ‘big five league’ club on their side of the draw is Lazio; on the other side, there’s Manchester United and Real Sociedad (who face each other in the round of 16), AS Roma and Athletic Bilbao (likewise), and Olympique Lyonnais.
Spurs, you could say, are the biggest club left in it. Most bookmakers, in fact, have installed them as favourites, despite their many problems this season. Some of those problems should be fading away, with their nightmare schedule of two to three games per week clearing up and key players like Gugliermo Vicario, Wilson Odobert, Destiny Udogie and Brennan Johnson returning from injury.
For the first time in ages, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke have all been named in the squad – but they’re all on the bench for Spurs, which suggests that in an ideal world, they’ll get this job done without their significant involvement.
The only major absentee this morning (as in, not in the squad at all) is Dejan Kulusevski, who is out until after the March international break with a mystery foot problem.
To some consternation in London, Postecoglou rotated his big guns to give the likes of Kulusevski, Djed Spence and Son Heung-min a rest in their last-start 1-0 defeat to Manchester City to ensure they were fresh for this match. Which sort of sums things up: he gets blamed for not rotating enough when overworked players get injured, and also gets blamed for any bad results when he does rotate.
Anyway. Spurs should be too good for AZ, who sit sixth in the Dutch Eredivisie, one point adrift of the European places. But you never know. It’s a funny old game.
