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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 153 88 37 28 313-134 (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 254 137 56 61 503-265
Hoping for a comfortable start to another European campaign
When Spurs hosted Qarabag in September 2015, 9 years ago, it was the first ever meeting in a UEFA competition between an English club and one from Azerbaijan. Our present-day captain Son Heung-min had only recently signed from Bayer Leverkusen and opened his Spurs scoring account with a brace against unknown opponents.
Ben Davies was an unused sub and is the only other surviving Spurs player from that game. Between then Son and Davies have made 742 club appearances, 126 of which have been in European matches. Indeed, they are both in the top 5 of our all-time appearance makers in European competition, joining Harry Kane (76), Hugo Lloris (70) and Steve Perryman (64). "Sonny" has made 61 whilst Ben Davies has made 65 appearances in Europe for Spurs.
Son has scored 24 goals for Spurs in Europe, most of which (19) have been in The Champions League. Since those first two goals against Qarabag he has added 162 more in all competitions. We might be lucky to see Son start tomorrow (8pm - TNT), but it would be great to see him "book-end" those first two Spurs goals.
Qarabag qualified for early Champions League qualifiers as champions of Azerbaijan, but fell 5-0 on aggregate to Dinamo Zagreb. Bearing in mind Zagreb just lost 9-2 to Bayern Munich (Kane scored 4, including three pens), perhaps that tells us something of the likely quality of our opponents tomorrow. Surely we can look forward to a comfortable start to this new-style Europa League campaign.
Most readers will know there is one league of 36 teams, eight of which (two from each level of seeding) we will meet in single games. Those teams which finish in the top eight will automatically proceed to the last 16, while those who finish 9th-24th will face a play-off round. Opta has calculated that 16 points should be enough to reach the last 16, so that's five wins and a draw. Spurs' most difficult opponents would appear to be Roma (at home) and Galatasaray (away). Both those matches will be played in November, but next week's tip to Hungary for Ferencvaros will also be tricky.
Qarabag have won five of the six league games played so far and won the most recent of these 4-0 last Friday. Their league goals come from various sources but Portuguese midfielder Leandro Andrade tops the early chart with three of those, scored in the last two games. They have a Brazilian midfielder with a familiar name - Juninho - who has scored 8 goals in all competitions this season.
I'm hoping for a convincing home win, perhaps three or four goals. With a trip to Old Trafford on Sunday, I expect Ange Postecoglou will ring the changes with his personnel and I suspect we'll see Dragusin and Davies at the back. I hope for a strong strike force to start the game. With Richarlison and Lankshear injured, there's not too much choice at the front.
Referee Willy Delajod (aged 32) and his on-field officials are from France. Msr. Delajod is new to Spurs, but not to European football, having officiated in several European and International games over the last year.
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