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· Last week's first leg - Spurs 2 Lyon 1
· Preview for the first leg - Spurs v Lyon
· See the current injury list for all Premiership Teams
· 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
101 58 26 17 206-80
(Winners 1972, 1984
Finalists 1974)
Total
P W D L F - A
154 87 35 32 317-146
Beware! Lyon hit a bit of form at the week-end
While Spurs had a week-end off due to their lack of progress in the FA Cup, our Europa League opponents for this Thursday's Round of 32 second leg hit a bit of form when they beat Bordeaux away 4-0 on Sunday.
Bordeaux are no mugs in the French Ligue 1, sitting comfortably in mid-table. Perhaps they were keeping their powder dry for their own Europa League game this Thursday, when they host Dynamo Kiev, after a 1-1 draw last week in Ukraine. Like Lyon, Bordeaux have that precious away goal in the bag. Mind you, all Spurs have to do is to hold on to their one goal lead, or perhaps increase it!
The 4-0 defeat was Bordeaux's biggest of the season, and also Lyon's biggest win. Remi Garde's side moved up to second place and strengthened their challenge for another French title. Clement Grenier (who replaced Steed Malbranque last week) scored two goals, including one penalty, whilst the other goalscorers did start our game. Guieda Fofana scored a 25 yard strike, and Alexandre Lacazette also scored from out side the area. Clearly, Lyon will be in good shape for our game.
Spurs have had the disadvantage of the draw for this round, because we finished runners-up in or group, and have to play the away leg of the tie second. The last time we played the away leg last was five years ago in the Europa League's predecessor, the UEFA Cup. Our opponents then were PSV Eindhoven, whose goalkeeper was a certain Heurelho Gomes.
Spurs, managed by Juande Ramos, were on a high, having beaten Chelsea in the Carling Cup Final, but then lost 4-1 to Birmingham at St. Andrews in an "after the ball was over" performance. We played PSV at home on 6th March 2008 and lost 1-0. Brazilian left back Gilberto made his Spurs debut, and did not cover himself with glory, gifting the ball to Farfan, who scored the PSV goal.
It wasn't an away goal that did for us, because we returned the compliment by winning 1-0 at Eindhoven the following week. (PSV 0 Spurs 1 - 12th March, 2008). Dimitar Berbatov scored an 81st minute goal to earn extra time, but we agonisingly lost the penalty shoot-out 6-5, with Jermaine Jenas hitting a soft shot at Gomes, and Chimbonda missing the target completely. Steed Malbranque, now at Lyon, was a Spurs player then.
Although we had beaten West Ham 4-0 between the two matches against PSV, we took a nose-dive in our form for the rest of the season, and won just two of our remaining ten games. A 1-0 win at Reading in our penultimate game of the season was Ramos's last league win in charge of Spurs.
Ramos is currently in his third season in charge at Dnipro, who finished top of their Europa League Group (PSV finished third), but they lost their first leg 2-0 at Basel, and face an uphill task at home.
Lyon have won their last four home games in European football, an d have not lost such a game at home since being beaten 2-0 by Real Madrid in the Champions League in November 2011. That man Ronaldo scored both goals, one of which was from the penalty spot.
Spurs are unbeaten in Europe this season, and their last away defeat came in the same week as Lyon's loss to Real Madrid. We lost a Europa League game 1-0 to Rubin Kazan.
I've seen no team news as yet, but do not anticipate any signifant changes to last week's squad, with Andre Villas-Boas of course reserving the right to rotate his defence, without there being too many options in front of the back four.
Gareth Bale has been the headline act in our last four games, and has been our man of the match five consecutive times. I don't care if he creates the headline again tomorrow night. We know the game is finely poised, and I remain confident that Spurs will come through this tie, perhaps by simply holding onto their advantage. I've got a feeling we may score a break-away goal though!
Please note there may be some delay in updating the website due to my travel to France.
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