Tottenham Hotspur kick off life under Antonio Conte with a crunch Group G match against Vitesse in 2021-22 UEFA Europa Conference League.
Victory could put Tottenham top of Group G whereas Vitesse could move top with a win if Rennes fail to beat Mura elsewhere.
Victories for Rennes and Vitesse would however leave Spurs five points adrift of qualification with two matches left.
Team News
Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns to report as Bryan Gil (hamstring) and Ryan Sessegnon (fitness) remain ruled out.
Vitesse will be without Maximilian Wittek after the left-back suffered an injury in their home win over Spurs, despite netting the winner for the Dutch team.
Million Manhoef (knee) is also ruled out of this match.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham lost their first-ever meeting against Vitesse 1-0 a fortnight ago in Arnhem.
- Vitesse are visiting Tottenham for the very first time in all UEFA competitions.
- Spurs have lost just two of their last eight home matches against Dutch opposition in all UEFA competitions (W4, D2, L2).
- Vitesse have lost all three previous away matches against English opposition in all UEFA competitions.
- This is the first match involving Tottenham and Vitesse to be refereed by Marco Di Bello.
Prediction
With Nuno Espirito Santo now out and Antonio Conte in, this is an intriguing match for Tottenham because the Italian would of only had two training sessions to impose some of his tactics and style on the players so it will be interesting to see how the team respond on the pitch here.
Vitesse meanwhile proved no pushovers in Arnhern a fortnight ago so will be looking to cause further issues, especially given that Spurs will be vulnerable as they adapt to Conte’s style but I feel like Vitesse will need to score early on otherwise the hosts could soon cause issues once they’re settled into this game.
In all honesty, this is a tricky match to call given the circumstances but Spurs’ quality and an electric crowd atmosphere should see them to a win if can find motivation to raise their performance with strong intensity than we saw against Manchester United on Saturday.
Prediction: Tottenham 2-0 Vitesse
Result: Tottenham 3-2 Vitesse