Preview: Spurs looking for home comforts against Danish champions
Tottenham host FC København at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday evening as Thomas Frank’s side look to continue their unbeaten start in the Champions League.
By Matt Smith
København are winless in the competition so far, and this is the first time these two sides have met before, with Frank facing a side from his home country.
The last time Frank faced a Danish opponent was back in March 2016, 3-1 defeat while in charge of København’s city rivals Brøndby.
Team news
Frank has confirmed that Lucas Bergvall will be unavailable for this one after getting a concussion against Chelsea last time out. Djed Spence and Mohammed Kudus have picked up knocks, but they should be available for this one. Other than that, there should be no fresh injury concerns for the home side.
København have a host of injury problems heading into this game. Thomas Delaney, Oliver Højer, Magnus Mattsson, Rodrigo Huescas and Birger Meling are all on the treatment table for the Danish side. Marcos López was substituted last time out due to injury, so there’s a chance he’s unavailable for this one too.
Is the table telling a lie on Tottenham?
Spurs currently sit in fifth position in the Premier League table, but their performances have been far from convincing so far this season. Frank’s side have created just 10.1 xG in the Premier League this term, ranking them 15th in the table, while they’ve also conceded 14.6 xG, the fifth highest.
Despite conceding that, they’ve actually conceded just eight goals, while they’ve found the back of the net on 17 occasions, despite their 10.1 xG. That suggests Spurs are perhaps getting a little lucky and falling on the right side of variance in games, with the data hinting that they’ve not been as good as their results look on paper.
København need to show more
It’s been a fairly disappointing campaign by København’s standards. They won the league’s Championship playoffs last season, but they currently find themselves sitting in fourth position in the Superliga.
They’ve looked strong going forward, enjoying the most possession in the league while scoring 29 goals, but they’ve looked leaky at the back. Brøndby, FC Midtjylland, and AGF, are in a three-way race for the title as it stands, with the distraction of the Champions League clearly not helping København.
Moukoko finally finding form
Youssoufa Moukoko was widely regarded as one of the most exciting young talents in world football when he broke through at Borussia Dortmund, but it’s not quite worked out for him so far. He made the move to København earlier this year, and after a slow start, he might be finally starting to build some confidence.
Moukoko has struck four times in his last four games, and he could be one to watch in this game, as he’s expected to play from the start.
Prediction
We’re not expecting a thriller in terms of goals, but Tottenham should have a little too much quality for København. We’re going for a 2-0 home win.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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