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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
110  63  29  18  228-89 
 
(Winners 1972, 1984
 Finalists 1974)
 
Total
P    W   D   L   F - A
163 92  38  33  335-155
  

Europa League Group K

(After Matchday 2)

Pos Team    P  W  D  L  F-A  GD  Pts
1. Spurs    2  2  0  0  5-0   5   6
2. Sheriff  2  0  2  0  1-1   0   2
3. Anzhi    2  0  1  1  0-2  -2   1
4. Tromso   2  0  1  1  1-4  -3   1
 

Spurs could qualify tomorrow!

Should Spurs win in Moldova tomorrow night, and Anzhi and Tromso draw their game, then Spurs would have guaranteed qualification for the knock-out phase of this competition in the shortest possible time, after only three games. The last team to do this was Sporting Clube de Portugal in 2010/11. Having pointed that fact out, I doubt that Tromso will return from the suburbs of Moscow with a point, so we'll wait for round four to make certain of that qualification. I think that Spurs will win this group in any case.

FC Sheriff are the dominant team in the Moldovan "Divizia Nationala", having won their league title in 12 out of the last 13 seasons. Last season they finished top with 80 points from 33 games (how does that work?), a clear 14 points ahead of their nearest rivals.

This season, they lead by 4 points after 12 games, and they haven't lost a domestic game since early August. (Their only league defeat to date). The only other matches Sheriff have lost in what has already been a 20 game season, were their two Champions League qualifiers against Luka Modric's old club, Dinamo Zagreb. That consigned the Moldovan Champions to Europa League qualification, which they managed against a Serbian team Vojvodina.

So far in Group K, Sheriff have drawn 0-0 at home to Anzhi, and 1-1 away to Tromso.

Wherever you go in Europe, it seems that you'll find teams with one or more Brazilian players in their squad, and Sheriff are no exception. Their top scorer in the league is 23 year old Brazilian striker Henrique Luvannor de Souza Silva, who plays anywhere across the front line, and has scored 10 league goals in only 7 starts and one substitute appearance. He hasn't played since 7th October, when he scored two goals against Tiraspol.

Another potential danger man, and he's a Brazilian too, is Ricardinho. After three seasons in Poland, he's moved to Sheriff this summer, and scored three goals in all, including their one Europa League goal to date.

Football, and previews such as this, thrive on trivia, and it just so happens that Sheriff's last opponents were Zimbru Chisinau, who are the only other team from Moldova that we have played before. George Graham's Tottenham had qualified for the UEFA Cup after their Worthington Cup victory over Leicester in 1999, and whilst Graham had urged caution, we beat Zimbru 3-0 in the home leg, with goals from Leonhardsen, Perry and Sherwood. With the tie secure, Graham decided to simply pack the midfield with defensive, rather than flair players (no Ginola then!), and settled for an all too familiar Graham-style 0-0. There had been a 10 game spell early in 1999 when we had to endure no less than five 0-0 games, two of them against Wimbledon!

Spurs soon fell out of that season's UEFA Cup against Kaiserslautern, who featured the exciting Frenchman Youri Djorkaeff, who was the architect of Spurs' defeat, and subsequently went on to play Premier League football for Bolton. Spurs had won a tight home match by the solitary goal (an Iversen penalty), but fans were upset at the absence of Ginola for all but the last 10 minutes of the away game, which we lost due to two late, late goals.

We had waited seven full years for European football, which has been so much a part of Spurs history and tradition since the famous Double season, which led to the glorious European Cup campaign of the 61-62 season. Thankfully, we are once again enjoying European football almost every season in recent years.

Andre Villas-Boas sprang one or two surprises with his team selection for Sunday's game at Villa Park, and one wonders whether it means Lewis Holtby or Christian Eriksen starts tomorrow night's game. Erik Lamela will surely get a start, and hopefully we'll see Aaron Lennon in action. Jermain Defoe will be seeking one more goal in Europe to equal Martin Chivers' record, whilst two would of course make him our all-time top scorer in European football.

I'll go for a Spurs win by two clear goals, with Defoe to get at least one. The referee is Mr Liran Liany (Liani) with his team of officials from Israel. Mr Liany has not failed to show a card in any of the games he has refereed over the last year at home and abroad, so don't bother backing no cards to be issued in this game!

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