Tottenham Hotspur mark their return to the UEFA Champions League with a home match against Villarreal.
Despite a dismal league campaign last season, Tottenham qualified for this stage of this season’s Champions League as Europa League champions.
Villarreal meanwhile finished fifth in La Liga and qualified by virtue of Spain having gained a bonus place through UEFA’s European Performance Spots.
Team News
Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 3-0 victory at West Ham in the Premier League.
Yves Bissouma (unspecified), Radu Dragusin, James Maddison (both ACL), Dejan Kulusevski (knee), Dominic Solanke (ankle) and Kota Takai (foot) are ruled out.
Villarreal could be without Gerard Moreno as he battles to recover from a hamstring injury.
Pau Cabanes, Logan Costa (both ACL) and Willy Kambwala (hamstring) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Tottenham host Villarreal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday 16 September at 8pm BST, live on Amazon Prime in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham are facing Villarreal in a competitive fixture for the first time in their history.
- Villarreal are making their first competitive trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
- Spurs have won just one of their three previous Champions League home games against Spanish opposition (W1, L2).
- Villarreal have won just one of their last eight Champions League meetings against English opposition (W1, D2, L5).
Prediction
Having bounced back from their surprise home loss to Bournemouth before the international break with a clinical performance at West Ham, Tottenham now need just focus on trying to continue to build on each performance because their football so far is much improved.
Villarreal though will be eager to bounce back from their La Liga defeat at Atletico Madrid where a lack of clinical final touches cost them, in a game where they otherwise matched Atletico in attack which is a positive that they must bring into this game if want any points.
I however do feel that Tottenham will have too much quality but Villarreal will certainly push them to the maximum.
Prediction: Tottenham 2-1 Villarreal
Result: Tottenham 1-0 Villarreal
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