Match Threads Pacos de Ferreira vs Spurs - Match Thread - ECL 1st leg - KO 7:30 pm

[Bulletspur]

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We start what we hope will be a season-long Europa Conference League campaign with a fixture against Paco De Ferreira tonight on Thursday night. We travel to Portugal for the first leg with the reverse fixture taking place in North London next week. Having had to fend off questions regarding Kane since his arrival, Nuno would have been relieved to finally get the season underway against Manchester City at the weekend.

There were fears that we lacking the presence of Kane, we would succumb tamely to the Premier League champions, but we were deserved victors at home. Despite the manner of our success, Nuno will stress that he will take one game at a time, particularly with this European double-header taking place either side of a return to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. While some have questioned the need for a third continental competition, Nuno will view it as an opportunity to end our wait for silverware.

However, before we can think about a prolonged run in the tournament, We must focus on overcoming arguably the toughest team that we could have faced at this stage. Although Pacos de Ferreira are competing in Europe for the first time since 2013-14, they deserve respect after their fifth-placed finish in Portugal's top flight last season. Monday's 3-0 reverse at Boavista will concern Jorge Simao, who would have expected Os Castores to build on their opening-day success against Famalicao.
Pacos de Ferreira have now lost successive games in all competitions without scoring a goal, preparation which is less than ideal for a game of his magnitude. Denilson started the campaign with three goals from two games, but the forward has now gone three without scoring.


Team News

We said that Kane would play no part of this fixture, the focus instead being on featuring against Wolves at the weekend. Nuno is expected to make widespread changes from the team which started against Man City, handing full debuts to the likes of Pierluigi Collini, Cristian Romera and Bryan Gil.
Lo Celso could also be brought into the starting lineup, but Son is likely to keep his position down the middle of the attack.

Having made four alterations by the 70th minute against Boavista, Simao could make a number of changes to his Pacos de Ferreira XI. Helder Ferreira, Ze Uilton, Joao Pedro and Douglas Tanque are all in contention for appearances in the team.

Head to Head

We never faced each other in any competition, whether professional or friendly

Banner Courtesy of @chrissivad

 

[yid-down-under]

Gollini
Doherty, ccv, Romero, davies
John, winks, glc
Clarke, Scarlett, Gil

sess off the bench as he was involved in the u23s on Monday

 

[hellava_tough]

So apparently these are the players (19 from 21 man squad) who have been spotted on the plane/training for this game:

Gollini, Austin, Doherty, Cesay, Paskotsi, Davies, Sessegnon, Carter-Vickers, Romero, Lyons-Foster, Winks, John, White, Lo Celso, Bennett, Clarke, Bryan Gil and Scarlett.

There'll be two more to add.

No first teamers in there (Romero needs fitness).

 

[hellava_tough]

Gollini
Doherty, ccv, Romero, davies
John, winks, glc
Clarke, Scarlett, Gil

sess off the bench as he was involved in the u23s on Monday

It certainly looks like your line-up will be the one that starts

 

[panoma]

I like that squad. Was aftaid we would drag our first teamers around Europe for this.

Keep the first team fresh and focused on the Wolves match. ?

 

[hellava_tough]

I like that squad. Was aftaid we would drag our first teamers around Europe for this.

Keep the first team fresh, and focused, on the Wolves match. ?

Agreed.

I posted previously in the Nandez thread about having more depth in central midfield, especially for these types of games.

If we have a strong central midfield core, we can dictate the tempo of the game, whilst filling out the remaining places in the team with youngsters and squad players.

If Nandez, GLC and for instance Brozovic was our second string midfield, we'd be cruising through cup competitions with our squad players, until the semi-finals.

 

[$hoguN]

No Rodon?

 

[Hotspur88]

No Rodon?

Small injury

 

[Albertcoys]

So apparently these are the players (19 from 21 man squad) who have been spotted on the plane/training for this game:

Gollini, Austin, Doherty, Cesay, Paskotsi, Davies, Sessegnon, Carter-Vickers, Romero, Lyons-Foster, Winks, John, White, Lo Celso, Bennett, Clarke, Bryan Gil and Scarlett.

There'll be two more to add.

No first teamers in there (Romero needs fitness).

Craig

 

[FinnYid]

So we are basically without 15 first teamers? Will be tough one with such a squad.

 

[TheTanguy]

I was very skeptical about the ECL, but now I'm glad that we can see a bit more of youngsters like Scarlett and new signings like Gollini, Romero and Gil. Should be an interesting watch.

 

[FinnYid]

This is in all likelihood tougher fixture than we will get on group stages (if we reach there)

 

[hughy]

I am a bit surprised he hasn't taken one or two of Lucas, Bergwijn, Son and Dele for the bench just in case things don't quite go to plan, but I suppose it's the travelling before Wolves away that he wants to avoid.

Not sure what to expect as I'm not familiar with Pacos, but hopefully we can take a win back to NWHL.

 

[thebenjamin]

A little concerned we're taking liberties with our line up

 

[Shadydan]

A little concerned we're taking liberties with our line up

There's 2 legs so if we fuck it up we can turn it around

 

[fecka]

There's 2 legs so if we fuck it up we can turn it around

If we go 2 or 3 down going into the home leg, that would be a bit optimistic. This is a risky bet from Nuno, but I won't be surprised if we aren't prioritizing this comp to give it our all in getting top 4 instead.

 

[Monkey boy]

Great news to see Sessegnon back in the squad. Really hope he can turn his spurs career around from here.

 

[robotsonic]

We talked about playing the kids in this, but it's very strange to see us actually do it to this extent. Fair play. Excited to see Scarlett and presumably Gil start.

 

[TonyK]

This game on the telly anywhere?

 

[jonnyp]

This game on the telly anywhere?

Premier Sports in the UK I understand.

For any Norwegians it's on VG+ it seems.