Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur need a win over Swedish side IF Elsborg to seal their spot in the Europa League’s top eight. Follow the action live from 7am AEDT.
Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur need a win over Swedish side IF Elsborg to seal their spot in the Europa League’s top eight. Follow the action live from 7am AEDT.
Another chance for Spurs! An early cross from Pedro Porro, which looked ambitious off the boot, is just met by the head of Richarlison – but it was a stretch, the contact and timing wasn’t quite right, and it goes out for a goal kick. Good hustle, though.
Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 IF Elfsborg, 6 minutes
The match has begun. Tottenham get things going in front of their home crowd and make a typical front-foot start. And we have a shot already, inside the first minute, from Son Heung-min after a cracking run down the right from Mikey Moore, I believe it was. Saved with ease.
Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 IF Elfsborg, 1 minute
Look … I’d be lying if I said I knew stacks about them. I’m not familiar with their manager or any of their players. But they have picked up some decent results in the Europa League thus far, including a 1-0 win at home over AS Roma, and in their last outing, a victory by the same margin against Nice of France’s Ligue 1.
They sit 20th on the table at the moment, pretty much assured of progression in one form or another; Spurs, meanwhile, are sixth.
Elfsborg finished seventh in the Swedish league last season, and it’s worth keeping in mind that it finished in November; their calendar runs across the year rather than overlapping like the rest of Europe. So since then, they’ve been playing friendlies to stay sharp between Europa League matches. That means they could be either fresh, or a little rusty. Who knows? Only one way to find out.
I wrote yesterday about the new format of the UEFA Champions League and how the final matchday has 18 games going all at once to determine who finishes where on a 36-team ladder. You can read about that here.
But brace yourself for exactly the same thing. The Europa League has taken on an identical format and that means there’s going to be a whole lot of football being played from 7am AEDT.
It’s probably worth keeping a tab on your phone or laptop open with the live ladder, because things will change dramatically over the course of the next couple of hours.
The big news on the teamsheets is the return from injury of Spurs’ star centre-back Micky van de Ven, who has been sidelined since December 9. He’s so important to the way Tottenham builds up from the back, so he’s an important inclusion – but fans will be watching him play through the gaps in their fingers, because another re-injury would be … let’s not even go there.
Here’s the Spurs XI:
They are, of course, still missing Dominic Solanke, Gugliermo Vicario, James Maddison, Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Cristian Romero, Djed Spence and Wilson Odobert, most of whom are starting XI players.
Anyway, here’s the Elfsborg line-up:
Morning, folks. Welcome to our live coverage of Tottenham Hotspur’s final Europa League league stage fixture at home to Swedish outfit IF Elfsborg.
It’s a big one for Ange Postecoglou – who desperately needs to start picking up wins to entrench his position – and the team, who will be assured of a top eight finish and a final 16 berth if they can bag the three points. This being a home game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, they are heavily favoured to do so, but this is a team that is low on confidence, numbers and energy … so it’s no guarantee.
A defeat would be bad on a number of levels, most notably because they would risk finishing in the middle 16 of the table, which would mean a two-legged play-off to secure their place in the Europa League’s knockout rounds. And given the health of this squad and the nature of their schedule … that is best avoided, let’s put it that way.
I’m Vince Rugari. Let’s rock.