STAR PREVIEW: Tottenham v Olympiakos
Jose Mourinho had a fine start to his time at Tottenham with a Derby win over West Ham and Spurs fans could see another win in quick succession Spurs return to Champions League action against Olympiakos.
Mourinho has taken over a Spurs side that’s badly struggling in the Premier League but they are well placed with seven points from four games and a win tonight will take them into the Last 16 with a game to spare.
That’s a very helpful platform for the foreseeable future with every Premier League game and whilst it will take time for new tactics to bed in, the new manager does have a lot to work with and both Eric Dier and Harry Winks appeared to add ballast to the midfield in their 3-2 win against West Ham at the weekend.
A back to form performance from Dele Alli, who produced a superb off the floor assist that led to Lucas Moura’s goal, was a big factor in a slick attacking display which saw Son Heung-min score his seventh goal in his last nine games, alongside goals for Lucas Moura and Harry Kane.
The return of Moura to the side has given an extra injection of pace to the Spurs attack, and the foursome of Son, Moura, Alli and Kane had the Hammers on skates for seventy minutes before a couple of late goals put a heavy gloss on the scoreline. Spurs won the expected goals count 2.3 to 0.6, a fairly dominant performance, and they should take confidence from that going forward.
Tottenham Hotspur v Olympiakos
UEFA Champions League Group Stage
20:00 BT Sport 2 / BT Sport Ultimate HD
HEAD TO HEAD RECORD*
(Maximum 10 matches)
SEP 2019 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Olympiakos 2-2 Tottenham
Facing Olympiakos might be a tougher task for them tactically. The Greeks, if their Champions League performances are anything to go by, will probably sit much deeper than West Ham did on Saturday, challenging the pacey Spurs frontline to break them down and then striking on the break through Bruno Gaspar, Hillal Soudani. and Daniel Podence. Podence is a particular threat down the flanks and Spurs midfield duo of Winks and Dier (if retained from Saturday) will need to watch Mathieu Valbuena in midfield. Both of them scored in a 2-2 draw in Greece in which Spurs will be aggrieved not to have won after going 2-0 up, but Olympiakos have not performed well on the road in Europe.
Their two previous trips in the group have ended in defeats (3-1 at Red Star, 2-0 to Bayern Munich) and another defeat would be their seventh straight loss on the road in Europe. Spurs haven’t had the best season so far but they’re six points clear of their visitors and put five goals past the same Red Star Belgrade side that beat Olympiakos 3-0. A worry for those who will be backing the hosts for a wide margin success would be their performance against Bayern Munich, when they held out the Germans for 69 minutes and went down 2-0, with the second goal coming in the 89th minute. However, on that occasion, they lost the shot count 27-3 and the expected goals count 2.9 -0.2, and Spurs should find a way to overpower the visitors.
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