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· Last week's match report - Spurs 2 Basel 2
· Last week's match preview
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats
Spurs record in Europe:-
U.E.F.A Champions League
P W D L F - A
12 5 3 4 25 -19
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
105 59 28 18 213-87
(Winners 1972, 1984
Finalists 1974)
Total
P W D L F - A
158 88 37 33 324-153
· Last week's match report
· Last week's match preview
Can we do it? Yes we can!
With a free week-end to follow tomorrow night's crucial Europa League quarter-final second leg, Spurs can safely play their strongest possible line-up. Yes, we know that means no Bale and no Lennon, but Spurs have absolutely nothing to lose and have every reason to go all out for a win. Can we do it? Yes we can!
Last week's 2-2 draw was a good game of football, if not the best of nights for Spurs fans, but our team did so, so well to come back from 2-0 down. We have to try and put the away goal deficit into the back of our minds, and realise that we go into this game on level terms, simply needing to score one more goal than them! (or draw 3-3 or more, or 2-2 and take it to extra time!)
Kyle Walker has served his suspension, and will have a crucial attacking role to play, hopefully to the degree we saw in Sunday's second half against Everton.
Basel drew their week-end game 1-1 away to third placed St. Gallen. Marco Streller scored the goal, and he is the top scorer in the Swiss Super League with 14 goals in 24 appearances. In the Europa League, Streller has scored as many goals as has Jermain Defoe (4), whereas Lazio's Libor Kozak tops the poll with 8 goals.
Lazio have a two goal deficit to try and cancel out in their match at home to Fenerbahce, whilst Chelsea take a two goal advantage to Russia and Rubin Kazan, whilst Newcastle also have a two goal deficit in their match against Benfica. Newcastle will be at home tomorrow too.
The last time Spurs won a second leg game away from home in Europe was five years ago, when we played PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Cup Round of 16. We had lost at home 1-0, and thanks to a Berbatov goal repaid the compliment, winning on their territory, taking the tie to a penalty shoot-out, which did not go Spurs' way.
You have to go back a long, long way to find such a tie when we won the second leg away, AND progressed to the next round. That was in November 1983, on our path to UEFA Cup victory in 1984. We had beaten Feyenoord 4-2 at home, and beat them 2-0 away with goals by Chris Hughton and Tony Galvin. That was one of two goals Hughton scored for us in Europe that season, with three league goals to add to those. Tony Galvin had scored two of our home goals against Feyenoord, with Steve Archibald also getting a brace.
Basel actually had three players suspended for last week's game, one of whom was former Liverpool defender Philipp Degen. Therefore, it is feasible that the home side will be even stronger than when they played at White Hart Lane. On the other hand, we can play a lot better than we did last week, even without Bale and Lennon. Our defence lacked balance and composure, and with that free week-end to come, AVB can field his strongest defence.
I hope to return from Switzerland in good heart and ready for the Europa League semi-final. Due to my travel plans, my match report will be delayed until Saturday morning.
The officials for this game are from Portugal, and we have been refereed by Mr. Olegario Benquerenca before. This referee was in charge of our 3-0 home win in the Champions League Group match against Werder Bremen, and was scored 6.6 out of 10 by 222 voters, which is good going for any referee! Mind you, his card count over the last year in 32 domestic, European and International matches is high, with an average of almost 6 cards per game, including 11 reds, 4 of which were straight red cards offences.
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