Key posts
POLL: Who you got this morning?
TEAM NEWS: Van de Ven is back!
The big news on the teamsheets is the return from injury of Spurs’ star centre-back Micky van de Ven, who has been sidelined since December 9. He’s so important to the way Tottenham builds up from the back, so he’s an important inclusion – but fans will be watching him play through the gaps in their fingers, because another re-injury would be … let’s not even go there.
Here’s the Spurs XI:
They are, of course, still missing Dominic Solanke, Gugliermo Vicario, James Maddison, Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Cristian Romero, Djed Spence and Wilson Odobert, most of whom are starting XI players.
Anyway, here’s the Elfsborg line-up:
Hello and welcome
Morning, folks. Welcome to our live coverage of Tottenham Hotspur’s final Europa League league stage fixture at home to Swedish outfit IF Elfsborg.
It’s a big one for Ange Postecoglou – who desperately needs to start picking up wins to entrench his position – and the team, who will be assured of a top eight finish and a final 16 berth if they can bag the three points. This being a home game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, they are heavily favoured to do so, but this is a team that is low on confidence, numbers and energy … so it’s no guarantee.
A defeat would be bad on a number of levels, most notably because they would risk finishing in the middle 16 of the table, which would mean a two-legged play-off to secure their place in the Europa League’s knockout rounds. And given the health of this squad and the nature of their schedule … that is best avoided, let’s put it that way.
I’m Vince Rugari. Let’s rock.
