. 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:-
U.E.F.A Champions League
P W D L F - A
53 22 12 19 90 - 75
(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
161 93 39 29 330-143
(Winners 1972, 1984
Finalists 1974)
Europa Conference League
P W D L F - A
7 3 1 3 14 - 9
+ Forfeited one game due to Covid - 09/12/21)
Total
P W D L F - A
262 142 58 62 520-274
Final Europa League Placings
Pos P W D L F-A GD Pts
Spurs 4 8 5 2 1 17-9 8 17
AZ Alkmaar 19 8 3 2 3 13-13 0 11
Europa League Placings in full
AZ Alkmaar Europa League record 2024/25
League phase:-
AZ Alkmaar 3-2 Elfsborg
Ath. Bilbao 2-0 AZ Alkmaar
Spurs 1-0 AZ Alkmaar
AZ Alkmaar 3-1 Fenerbahce
AZ Alkmaar 1-1 Galatasaray
Ludogorets 2-2 AZ Alkmaar
AZ Alkmaar 1-0 Roma
Ferencvaros 4-3 AZ Alkmaar
Play-off Round
AZ Alkmaar 4-1 Galatasary
Galatasary 2-2 AZ Alkmaar
The real battle begins!
The groundwork has been successfully negotiated and Spurs have reached the Europa League Round of 16. Seven potential hurdles lay in our path before we can qualify for next season's Champions League by winning the Europa League trophy in May at Bilbao. That means beating four good teams, the first of which are tomorrow's opponents AZ Alkmaar.
In 30 seasons of European football, we have never before faced the same team in two separate stages of the same season's competition. When we beat AZ 1-0 at Tottenham on 24th October (thanks to a Richarlison penalty), we secured a third win in the League phase of the competition and were hot favourites to qualify for this knock-out phase.
We became beset by injuries and suspensions and stumbled away to Galatasary, who were roundly beaten by AZ in last month's play-off tie. We then drew at home to Roma and away to Rangers, before securing fourth place with wins in our final two games.
There is good news with the return to full training of (wherefore art thou?)Romero, Van de Ven and Solanke, tempered by the fact they might not actually play tomorrow. Rumours abound of a foot injury sustained by "Deki" Kulusevski. We await confirmation of his status. It would be a shame if Dejan missed this game as he has played in every one of our 42 games so far this season.
The squad for this phase now includes Djed Spence, who was regretfully excluded from the league phase, along with new signings Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel. Five players are now unavailable - Forster, Kinsky, Reguilon, the injured Dragusin and Werner. Goalkeeper cover for Vicario will rest primarily with Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman.
Until Sunday AZ had been unbeaten in 7 games, winning five and drawing two matches. On Sunday, they lost 3-1 away to SC Heerenveen, who they beat 9-1 in September. Former Spur Troy Parrott scored four of his 12 Eredivisie goals in that one game. He sits in second place in the League list of scorers. I suspect AZ fielded a less than full strength side in preparation for this game (kicking off at 5.45pm BST tomorrow). Spurs must beware. As you can see above, AZ did better than Spurs in their three games against Galatasaray and also beat Claudio Ranieri's somewhat rejuvenated Roma.
As a seeded team we benefit from playing the first leg of this tie away from home. Alkmaar is located in Netherlands' Northern province about 25 miles north of Amsterdam. The atmosphere is likely to be hot and specific arrangements are being made for the safe passage of travelling fans to and from a stadium where there have been problems in the past.
Troy Parrott has four Europa League goals, two of which were penalties. Sven Mijnans has also scored four goals in AZ's 10 games in the tournament to date.
Heung-min Son and Brennan Johnson have each scored three goals. Each have made six Europa League appearances.
London's young player of the year Archie Gray was the only member of the squad to start all of Spurs' eight games. Ben Davies is next with seven starts. Dejan Kulusevski has featured in all 8 games, but started just two.
I think we'll have a tough game tomorrow, but expect Spurs to ultimately qualify for a quarter-final against either Ajax or Eintracht Frankfurt, both of whom we have played in recent years. The second leg of this tie is at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Thursday 13th March.
The on field match officials and VAR are from Slovenia. Referee Rade Obrenovic is the eighth new official for Spurs this season. He has been kept busy with 8 European and International fixtures so far this season.
A word here for Dennis Bond, who died aged 77 earlier this week. Dennis made his Spurs debut as substitute for Dave Mackay in a 2-1 home win over Liverpool on April 1st, 1967. Jimmy Greaves scored both our goals. Greavsie also scored two goals in Dennis's one European match - a 4-3 home win over Olympique Lyonnaise in December, 1967. Only three of our players in that game survive to this day - Pat Jennings, Jimmy Robertson and Cliff Jones. Cliff scored one of our goals, along with Alan Gilzean.
