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Spurs Odyssey Preview - Leipzig v Spurs, 10.03.20

· Spurs 0 Leipzig 1, 19.02.20
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Spurs v Leipzig - Preview of home match
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See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats


Spurs' record in Europe:-
The official crest of Tottenham Hotspur
U.E.F.A Champions League
 
 P  W   D   L   F - A
44 19   9  16  82 - 65

(Finalists 2019)
 
European Cup
P   W   D   L   F - A
8   4   1   3  21 - 13
 
(Semi-Finalists 1962)
 
European Cup Winners Cup
 
P   W   D   L   F - A
33  20  5   8  65 - 34
 
(Winners 1963)
 
UEFA Cup/Europa League
 P    W   D   L   F - A
140  78  36  26  276-121 
 
(Winners 1972, 1984
 Finalists 1974)
The club logo of RB Leipzig
Total
P    W   D   L   F - A
225 121 51  53  444-233

Champions League Group B

                   P  W  D  L  F-A  GD  Pts
1. Bayern Munich   6  6  0  0 24-5 +19  18
2. Spurs           6  3  1  2 18-14 +4  10 
3. Olympiacos      6  1  1  4  8-14 -6   4     
4. Crvena zvezda   6  1  0  5  3-20 -17  3

Champions League Group G

                   P  W  D  L  F-A  GD  Pts
1. RB Leipzig      6  3  2  1 10-8  +2  11
2. Lyon            6  2  2  2  9-8  +1   8 
3. Benfica         6  2  1  3 10-11 -1   7     
4. Zenit           6  2  1  3  7- 9 -2   7
      

Can we produce another Ajax moment?

Last year, in the Champions League semi-final, having lost the first leg at home 1-0, we faced Ajax away and produced a miraculous second half to win the game 3-2 and to win the tie on away goals with a 3-3 aggregate score. Now we travel to Leipzig in the hope of something similar.

With the worldwide Coronavirus concern, RB Leipzig have confirmed that this game will go ahead, and that it can be enjoyed by those fans travelling to the game.

Lucas Moura was our hat-trick hero in that Ajax game and he, along with Giovani Lo Celso were held back until the second half at Burnley and will be key to any possible Spurs success in this game. Harry Winks did not get off the bench at Turf Moor and we must assume he will be playing tomorrow, and that presumably Tanguy Ndombele will not be a starter. I am also concerned about the fitness of Steven Bergwijn who was struggling after a heavy tackle near the end of the Burnley game. Bergwijn was not spotted amongst those training today. Ben Davies, who missed the Burnley game, was also not seen.

It's a little early for the official team news, but the club often keeps something back anyway. Views of the squad training at Hotspur way this morning are sufficiently distant to prevent positive identification of individuals. Harry Kane has been sighted, continuing his "on-field rehabilitation". Maybe we will see him back in the team next month. Ryan Sessegnon and Gedson Fernandes will surely travel to Germany and could also have an impact in any situation when we need to go all out on the attack. Such games can be very exciting when there is nothing to lose, as we saw in Amsterdam last year.

It is a rather disturbing fact that in our 44 Champions league games that played so far (including the play-off games when we first qualified in 2010), we have lost nearly as many games (16) as we have won (19). The statistics were similar for the 8 matches we played in the 1961-62 European Cup, whilst for the "lower tier" Cup-Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup/Europa League our win percentage is far better.

Spurs have yet to win a game since we lost the first leg of this tie at home on February 19th. We lost at Chelsea, and at home to Wolves, before the penalty shoot-out cup defeat to Norwich. Then, on Saturday we drew at Burnley. Of all these games, our form shown in the second half at Turf Moor with Lo Celso and Lucas Moura on the pitch even had me thinking we could yet do an Ajax in Leipzig!

Leipzig were in devastating form in their first game after beating Spurs 1-0. On the day we lost at Chelsea, Julian Nagelsmann's exciting side beat a sixth placed Schalke side 5-0 away from home in front of another 60,000+ crowd. Leipzig had five different scorers in that game too - Sabitzer, Werner, Halstenberg, Angelino and substitute Forsberg. Bayern kept their lead that weekend, but only managed to beat bottom club Paderborn 3-2 with Lewandowski scoring two to increase his lead over Werner to one of four goals.

RB Leipzig have apologised to a group of Japanese guests who were asked to leave their recent home match against Bayer Leverkusen amid coronavirus concerns.

Stewards at the game were told to conduct "increased checks on groups of persons from potential risk areas". Germany's DPA news agency reported that a group of about 20 visitors were told to leave 10 minutes after kick-off. "We would like to and must apologise for this mistake at this point," said the Bundesliga club.

That game was drawn 1-1 with Schick scoring Leipzig's goal. On Saturday Leipzig drew again. This time it was a 0-0 away to Wolfsburg. Top scorer Timo Werner was a substitute and only played the last half-hour of this game. Midfielder Dani Olmo was similarly given a breather, taking the place of Forsberg. Leipzig will have their key central defender Dayot Upamecano available for this game.

Can we "do an Ajax" and overcome a 1-0 home defeat by beating Leipzig to reach a third Champions League quarter-final? That in itself would be a great achievement. I will be travelling to find out, but as I won't be home till Wednesday lunchtime my match report will be delayed.

Match referee Carlos del Cerro Grande and his team of officials are from Spain. Senor Grande and most of this group were in charge when we beat Crvena Zvezda 4-0 away in November. We liked this referee as his was one of the highest marks awarded this season. The result had a lot to do with that, I suspect!

· "Ten Years After" - Spurs Odyssey reviews the season in which we first qualified for the Champions League. On March 6th 2010 we played a 6th Round FA Cup game and drew 0-0 at Craven Cottage.

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