Tottenham can secure their qualification to the knockout stages of the Europa League by if they beat Qarabag FK in Azerbaijan on Thursday evening. The Spurs have won the reverse fixture at White Hart Lane, even though Richard Almeida had put the Azeri side ahead. Son Heung-min bagged a double and Erik Lamela also scored for Tottenham on that occasion.
Qarabag have won the last two Azerbaijan Premier League titles and look set to clinch the third as they are nine points clear of the second-placed team. They failed to reach the Champions League group stages as they were knocked out by Celtic, but they secured their Europa League spot with an impressive 4-0 aggregate victory over Young Boys. In the group stage they defeated Anderlecht 1-0, lost to Spurs and Monaco but secured a 1-1 draw against the French side last time out. They are still in with a chance to qualify, a win against Tottenham would put them level on 7 points with the Premier League side.
Tottenham have been quite impressive in the Premier League lately, last weekend they defeated West Ham 4-1 to move up to fifth place in the table. They are unbeaten in the last 12 Premier League matches as they have not lost since the opening day of the season. They are at the top of Europa League Group J after two wins, a draw and a loss. They would need to avoid defeat at Qarabag though, otherwise qualification would become quite complicated. Manager Mauricio Pochettino also has Sunday's Premier League match against Chelsea on his mind, so he might choose to rest a few players for that derby. Nabil Bentaleb and Nacer Chadli are injured and won't travel to Azerbaijan.
Probable line-ups:
Qarabag: Sehic - Agoli, Garayev, Medvedev, Sadygov - Huseynov, El Jadeyaoui, Quintana, Ismayilov, Almeida - Armenteros
Tottenham: Lloris - Trippier, Dier, Vertonghen, Davies - Alli, Townsend, Eriksen, Mason, N'Jie - Kane
My prediction: Tottenham to win 1-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Qarabag win - 4.20 Draw - 3.40 Spurs win - 2.05
sharpe
8 years ago
Tottenham is a regular participant in the Europa League for so many years now but I think this tournament prevent them to be fresher in their PL campaigns when the y always seems to finish 5th in the end missing a CL spot. Spurs looking in great shape at the moment so I guess they will win in that one even if the manager...
Tottenham is a regular participant in the Europa League for so many years now but I think this tournament prevent them to be fresher in their PL campaigns when the y always seems to finish 5th in the end missing a CL spot. Spurs looking in great shape at the moment so I guess they will win in that one even if the manager decides to not put in the starting eleven all of his best players.
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BobiRobson4 8 years ago
Tottenham won last match with 3-0 , but this time Tottenham had some problems , Nabil Bentaleb and Nacer Chadli will both miss this game because of injury , but good news is that Townsend could return in team. Qarabag have won the last two Azerbaijan League titles and i think they are worthy participants here and i...
Tottenham won last match with 3-0 , but this time Tottenham had some problems , Nabil Bentaleb and Nacer Chadli will both miss this game because of injury , but good news is that Townsend could return in team. Qarabag have won the last two Azerbaijan League titles and i think they are worthy participants here and i think that they can do something in UEFA League . I dont want to tell what will be result here , but i know this will be good game and i cant wait to watch it .
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