Spurs to continue good start to 2021/2022 season
Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to build on their surprising 1-0 win over Premier League champions Manchester City on opening weekend by going a long way to ensuring their prolonged participation in the first ever season of the UEFA Conference League, Europe's tertiary continental competition. Portuguese side Paços de Ferreira will play hosts at the Estádio da Mata Real on Thursday evening, and it will be an almighty shock if their English opponents don't travel back to north London with a first leg advantage. Read our preview here:
The Silva medal
New head coach Jorge Simão must rally his troops after a severely disappointing 3-0 defeat at Boavista in only the second game of their Primeira Liga campaign, and should at least have the distinct advantage of retaining the vast majority of their XI for the visit of Spurs. A counter-attacking 4-3-3 is likely to be retained, making use of the flanks on the break to test out the fresh full-backs who will be lacking sharpness. Whilst nobody came out with their reputations enhanced on Sunday, left-sided forward Lucas Silva will give Matt Doherty a severe test; the 23 year old gave his marker a torrid time in the 2-0 triumph over Famalicão, scoring the opener of a quickfire double for Os Castores.
Kaneless but able
Much of the media attention swirling around Nuno Espirito Santo's men continues to centre around the immediate future of star player Harry Kane. The England frontman was completely absent from the matchday squad at the weekend, but has been included in the group flying southwards. Whether that is simply a statement of intent and/or defiance remains to be seen, but even without him, there are enough goals in the squad. Heung-min Son, who netted a typically excellent individual goal on Sunday, should continue through the middle whilst many of his teammates will be rotated. Harry Winks should come in as the deepest midfielder, whilst new signing Bryan Gil will offer ammunition for Son from the left.
Nuno the Portu-geezer
Most of the likely XI for the hosts have at least four competitive fixtures in 2021/2022 under their belts, and that could prove to be a big factor in chipping away at the obvious individual and collective qualities their more vaunted visitors have on their roster. Even so, that ought to tell as the first half draws to a close, and bet365 have odds of 2.60 for a Tottenham HT/FT combination.
