You almost have to laugh.
You almost have to laugh. One day before a critical final Champions League group match away at Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur could be without two of its defensive starters, in addition to [waves vaguely] everyone else who’s currently injured at the club. The Evening Standard is reporting that Spurs central defender Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro were both absent from morning training on Tuesday, leading to the possibility that they both could miss tomorrow’s match in Germany. Porro was substituted at halftime of this weekend’s 2-2 draw against Burnley. There were no indications of anything wrong with Micky during or after the match.
Despite their woeful Premier League position, Tottenham have done well in Europe this season, thanks to a relatively easy Champions League draw. A home win over Dortmund last week means that if they win tomorrow’s match at Deutsche Bank Park they are guaranteed to finish in the top eight of the Champions League group stage table, meaning they earn a bye straight to the round of 16 and avoiding two playoff games. A draw might also be enough to secure top eight, but could put Spurs in a very awkward position. Tottenham are already guaranteed a place in the playoffs.
There is good news, however — Joao Palhinha, who has missed the past couple of matches with a knock, was spotted in training, suggesting he could be available to play. That would be pretty important, considering new signing Conor Gallagher and Yves Bissouma are not registered for this round of the Champions League, while Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur will miss the next 2-3 months with injuries of their own. Radu Dragusin is also not registered for this stage of the competition. Pape Matar Sarr recently returned from an AFCON-winning campaign with Senegal but has not played for Spurs since his arrival.
Spurs manager Thomas Frank and the squad are currently traveling to Germany to prepare for the competition, and Frank will give an update on the squad during his pre-match press conference this evening.
Van de Ven’s absence means that, most likely, Kevin Danso would slot in beside Cuti Romero in the back line, while Djed Spence would come in for Pedro Porro. Frankfurt are not a very good team and are eliminated from the Champions League competition already, so this is basically a dead rubber match for them. Spurs should have enough healthy talent at their disposal to be able to take care of business against them and punch their ticket to a bye tomorrow, but we should also wait to hear directly from Frank before we make any assumptions.
Category: General Sports
