Match Preview: Sporting Lisbon v Spurs (here we go!)
What a couple of days it has been. The Queen died, Prince Charles became a third (that is, King Charles III), and our City game was cancelled.
The City game being cancelled could be a blessing in disguise for us, as the longer we go on, the stronger we will get under Conte.
I bet that Daniel Levy was happy that the match was cancelled away than at home, as it would have caused a lot of money loss for him (Daniel will probably be smiling that it was City and not him that will bear the brunt of this financial catastrophe).
Anyway, after writing this, I will be driving to pick up Mel (and his wife) and then going onto Bristol airport to take a flight to Portugal for the game tomorrow (13th).
Sporting Lisbon and us will both be out to continue their/ our winning starts to the Champions League when we meet at the Estadio Jose Alvalade on Tuesday.
Sporting Lisbon beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 last week, while we beat a 10-man Marseille side 2-0.
Match preview
Former Spurs youngster Marcus Edwards stole the spotlight when Sporting Lisbon travelled to Frankfurt and beat the German team.
Sporting Lisbon are winless in six Champions League matches against English opposition and have never opened a premier European campaign with two straight wins.
As for us, Marseille held out for a good chunk of time, but it wasn’t until Chancel Mbemba received a red card for a foul on Son that Richarlison marked his Champions League debut with a brace of headers to give us all three points on the opening day of our quest for Champions League glory.
After beating the French club, we would have hoped to keep our impetus going against Premier League champions City at the weekend, but the fixture was one of many postponed in the wake of the Queen’s death. Therefore our unbeaten run for the season is still intact (as it would have been if we had played City on Saturday). We now aim to record our eighth game without defeat in all competitions. Still, only one of our three away games so far this season has ended in victory, and we were far from convincing for long periods against Marseille.
Sporting Lisbon Champions League form:
W
Sporting Lisbon form (all competitions):
WLLWWW
Tottenham Hotspur Champions League form:
W
Tottenham Hotspur form (all competitions):
DWWDWW
Team News
Sporting Lisbon
Their Jeremiah St Juste had to be taken off with a muscular problem against Frankfurt and will be forced to sit out the clash with us.
Goncalo Inacio and Luis Neto were forced off early in the win over Portimonense.-The former’s substitution was more precautionary.
Spurs
Lucas Moura should be absent from the travelling party this weekend as he nurses his tendon injury, while Bryan Gil can make the squad for the win over Marseille.
I don’t believe Conte will make any changes to his first XI if he can help it, with Richarlison and Clement Lenglet hoping to keep their places.
If Richarlison scores at least two goals this week, he would become only the second player in Champions League history to notch up a pair of strikes in his opening two games in the tournament after Diego Simeone in 1996.
My possible starting lineup:
Lloris; Romero, Lenglet, Dier; Emerson, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Perisic; Richarlison, Kane, Son
Thoughts
Sporting have certainly recovered from their slow start, but some fresh defensive concerns will threaten their hopes of a fourth-straight victory, I believe.
Whatever Sporting Lisbon can throw at us, I am sure that we can hit back against a depleted Sporting backline to record a second-straight European win.
Prediction 1-3 to us.
I believe we can overcome them and chalk up another European win. I feel we are stronger in all departments, and there will be plenty of talent on the bench if we need to make one or two changes.
It will be an interesting journey to the Lisbon game, even more so with me being on crutches. With Mel, I fly to Portugal, then a 1 hour trip to Mel’s Villa. Tomorrow we will make a 2-hour journey to Lisbon, where we will meet up with the others for a meal… before going on to the ground. The next day back home.
I only managed to pick my ticket up yesterday (because of the postal strike), however, Terry (from our group) hasn’t got his yet and will hope to pick it up at the ground out in Lisbon.
Up the Spurs
COYS!
Glenn
