Tottenham are back at playing European football: a UEL campaign awaits Ange Postecoglou and his players, competition that Spurs have already won twice in their history (1972, 1984). Let’s see why UEL could end a trophy drought that lasts since 2008…
NEW FORMAT
The UEL, just like the UCL, has now become a 36-team league stage in which all teams play 8 games, with Spurs facing: Roma, AZ Alkmaar, Qarabağ and Elfsborg at home and Rangers, Ferencváros, Galatasaray and Hoffenheim away. The top eight advance directly to the round of 16, while teams finishing from 9th to 24th will have to feature in a knockout round play-offs, with the winners of all eight two-legged ties going through to the last 16. This new format won’t see teams going down from the Champions League joining the knockout phase, this representing a big advantage for the team involved, Tottenham included of course. Spurs are currently seen as favourites for the final win by the bookmakers: the odds on Spurs lifting the trophy in Bilbao are 9/2.
POSTECOGLOU’S SECOND SEASON
“Usually in my second season I win things”, this is what Ange Postecoglou told the media not long ago. Tottenham’s manager is right, as the second season in his previous clubs has been glorious 3 times already: he won the league title with Brisbane Roar (AUS), Yokohama Mariners (JPN) and Celtic (SCO). It is well-known that Postecoglou’s teams play in a very particular way: high back line, constant pressure to gain the ball back once lost, inverted full-backs in the build-up and trying to always move the ball vertically. We already saw in the last seasons how much this offensive mentality pays off in European football, where there is hardly room for only defensive football. The hope of every Spurs fan is that Postecoglou can continue his winning-second season tradition and try to bring back to North London a trophy that is missing for 40 years.
