Tottenham vs Qarabag prediction: EUROPE: Europa League – League phase betting tips on match 2024-09-25 19:00.
[p]Without a major trophy to their name since 2007/08, Tottenham are carrying enormous expectations into their return to continental football, sharing favouritism with Manchester United to lift the UEFA Europa League trophy at San Mamés next May according to the bookmakers. The burden is even greater on manager Ange Postecoglou after he recently boasted to the press that he “always wins things in (his) second year” at a club, and even without key defender Cristian Romero for this outing, who is carrying a suspension over from his last UEFA outing, his Spurs side will seek the perfect start at home. [/p]
[p]It’s a venue at which they hold an unbeaten 13-game record (W11, D2) across all UEFA competitions since 2020/21, excluding one Europa Conference League match against Rennes which was forfeited due to a number of Covid cases in the squad. More recently, Spurs were the victors in each of their last six Premier League home games as the favourites, so they ought to be feeling strong ahead of their first UEFA game of this term.[/p]
[p]Defending Azerbaijan Premier League champions Qarabağ will be entering their ninth Europa League group/league stage since 2014/15, with last season’s historic run to the Round of 16 acting as the first time they’ve progressed beyond it. It’s therefore no surprise that they’ve retained long-term coach Qurban Qurbanov to add to his more than 170 UEFA games of experience as a club and national team manager.  [/p]
[p]Qarabağ have won more continental matches at opposition venues than at their own since the start of last season (five at home, seven away) and so leaving their stadium behind doesn’t appear to be an impediment. Whilst this is likely to be more difficult than the majority of those they encountered last season, Qarabağ’s enormous 4-2 knockout round play-off upset victory away to Portugal’s Braga is recent evidence of what they’re capable of as underdogs.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Tottenham’s Son Heung-min boasts 29 goals across ten seasons of UEFA competitions, and in his early days even recorded a first-half double when Spurs opened their 2015/16 Europa League group stage with a 3-1 win at home to Qarabağ. Qarabağ’s failure to qualify for the Champions League was no fault of star striker Juninho, who amassed six goals in six preliminary round appearances.[/p]
[p]Hot streak: Qarabağ’s last 13 competitive matches all had a winner, as did all but one of Tottenham’s last 14.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Aaron Murphy[/i][/p]