Spurs in the Europa League: Road to Gdańsk

[RichieS]

Limbersky scores for Plzen today. There’s a blast from the past when Arnesen was signing everyone and their brother. Great times.

I wonder what Spase Dilevski is up to these days.

 

[Saoirse]

Most games finished, but Maribor-Coleraine is (somehow) heading for a penalty shoot-out. Shamrock Rovers are also drawing 2-2 with Ilves after 112 minutes

And Maribor are out! One of the biggest results ever for a Northern Irish team in Europe

 

[Cavehillspur]

Coleraine win on pens, excellent.

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

Hope we get an N.I. team so I can stalk our hotel ??

 

[Saoirse]

Meanwhile in Dublin, Shamrock Rovers are currently at 9-9 in their shootout, and it's had to loop back round to give the first takers another go

 

[Saoirse]

The shootout is over! Shamrock Rovers 12, Tampere Ilves 11. Former Spurs player Aaron McEneff scoring both his penalities

 

[Saoirse]

And we now know who we can draw in the Second Qualifying Round! Firstly, the First Qualifying Round results:

The two postponed games are due to Covid cases - however, with three weeks until the next round, there is a strong chance these matches will be played in time. Coleraine pull off the shock of the round by defeating away from home a Maribor side who as recently as 17-18 played in the Champions League group stage. The two Scottish sides avoid any hint of an upset, Shamrock Rovers came through a penalty epic, The New Saints had a very strong extra-time win over Žilina, and APOEL survived a scare needing extra time to eliminate Gjilani.

At this stage, the Europa League qualifiers split into two different paths. The Champions Path is for teams who won their domestic league, but lost a Champions League qualifier - we therefore cannot meet sides in this path until the group stage. Rather than using coefficients, the seeding here is based on the round the teams were knocked out in - so in effect, the three losers of the Preliminary Round cannot face each other, but otherwise it's an open draw. Since the UCL is currently a round ahead, the teams which lost the Second Qualifying Round there (e.g. Celtic) will join this path, but a round later

And then there's the Main Path - that's where we come in!

Servette, Aris, OFI, Olimpija and Osijek probably the biggest names available at this point. We cannot yet see a "Battle of Britain" against the Scots - a few sides who would have been seeded going out, culminating with Maribor's penalty defeat, means Motherwell scrape into the seeded section. That leaves potential UK and Irish opposition as Lincoln Red Imps, Shamrock Rovers, Coleraine and Bala Town. Meanwhile, we probably want to avoid the winners of the two postponed games just because of the uncertainty, especially if we're away, and other than that nightmare travel options are Neftci (from Azerbaijan where Arsenal and Chelsea very much struggled to physically reach the Europa League final) and Kaisar (not geographically in Europe, just north of Kazakhstan's border with Uzbekistan, a mere 3,000 miles from London in a GMT+6 timezone meaning a very early kick-off too. But on the bright side, if you fancy a touch of the Oriental in your Europa away trip, China is just 700 miles east - driveable in a day!)

 

[Trotter]

IFK Goteborg would be nice.
They have won this competition twice, and actually more recently than us.

Or Servette with the Martin Chivers link

 

[isaac94]

Irish or Welsh team would be nice for logistical reasons. Servette and Aris are fairly decent (ones to miss). Shame no crowd allowed in, game away to Aris would have been an amazing atmosphere, great fanbase

 

[rabbikeane]

I'm fairly certain Bodø/Glimt is the team to avoid. It's just a norwegian team that usually aren't up to much, but their results this season is the best ever from a norwegian team and they won their first qualifier 6-1. It's the kind of team with high press and fast attacks that can surprise a weakened Spurs line up. We are obviously better, but they are the strongest we can face at this stage imo. Also in season.

 

[Erm33]

We got a bye in the Europa League ages ago when Feyenoord got kicked out.

Good memory!

I totally forgot about that, even though I went to the Sevilla game in the following round.

 

[isaac94]

I'm fairly certain Bodø/Glimt is the team to avoid. It's just a norwegian team that usually aren't up to much, but their results this season is the best ever from a norwegian team and they won their first qualifier 6-1. It's the kind of team with high press and fast attacks that can surprise a weakened Spurs line up. We are obviously better, but they are the strongest we can face at this stage imo. Also in season.

True, they play some great stuff as well

 

[Marty]

I'm fairly certain Bodø/Glimt is the team to avoid. It's just a norwegian team that usually aren't up to much, but their results this season is the best ever from a norwegian team and they won their first qualifier 6-1. It's the kind of team with high press and fast attacks that can surprise a weakened Spurs line up. We are obviously better, but they are the strongest we can face at this stage imo. Also in season.

Glimt are an incredible team to watch, just fantastic, the way they move when they attack they don't just blitz teams on the counter, they can also pass their way through block defences and make it look so easy (with the obvious caveat that some of the defences in Norway are pretty awful). They've completely blown away the competition in Norway this season, despite Molde looking pretty good and also progressing in the CL qualifiers Glimt are seven points clear at the halfway point of the season with a 13-2-0 record after 15 games, and they've scored 53 goals! Definitely a team we don't want to meet when we're not fully at it.

But I would like us to draw Viking, they're 12th out of 16 in Eliteserien, won the cup last season but have been very poor so far this season. And if (big if) some crowd is allowed in I can attempt a trip to Stavanger.

 

[TheChosenOne]

IFK Goteborg would be nice.
They have won this competition twice, and actually more recently than us.

Or Servette with the Martin Chivers link

MK you surprised me, I thought I was he only one who would make the Servette connection ! Good call

 

[DiVaio]

We can draw these 3 teams.

 

[Tottenhamboy85]

We can draw these 3 teams. View attachment 72559

How do you know this?

 

[Montalbano]

We can draw these 3 teams. View attachment 72559

Yep, we’re definitely drawing Plovdiv aren’t we:

Speaking to MBS, the Plovdiv head coach said: “My wish for the draw is to get a team that we can overcome. If we can beat Tottenham at home, I will be very happy.”

 

[DiVaio]

How do you know this?

Found the list on twitter.

 

[Montalbano]

Found the list on twitter.

So if we draw KF Laci [Albania] or Lokomotiv Plovdiv [Bulgaria] away will the squad be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival to the UK since they're not on the exempt list?

 

[Saoirse]

So if we draw KF Laci [Albania] or Lokomotiv Plovdiv [Bulgaria] away will the squad be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival to the UK since they're not on the exempt list?

Nope - football games aren't treated the same as random tourists because of all the safety protocols in placeqqq