please log in to view this image Thursday 19th August 7.30pm Europa Conference League Play-Off Estadio Capital do Movel The win on Sunday against City was something of a surprise, but this match might actually be more important. Nuno Espirito Santo faces back-to-back returns to previous areas of his career and we need good results. Wolves will be another stern test on the weekend, but it's a trip to Portugal first and it won't be easy. Pacos did well last season in Liga NOS and they shouldn't be underestimated. Can our new manager progress into the group stage or will we face another European embarrassment? A lot of people won't have heard of Pacos de Ferreira, either as a team or a place. It's a fairly small city in the Porto district and the club are largely a mainstay in the top-flight of Portugal. They've dipped into the second tier on two occasions in the last 20 years, but came back immediately both times. A 3rd place finish in 2012/13 has been their best finish and they've reached a couple of cup finals. The Beavers generally aren't domestically competitive though, which probably isn't surprising with their Big 3. Last season's campaign saw them sit in 5th place for months and it was no surprise when they finished there. Sporting, Porto and Benfica took their usual places and Braga are well established as the next best side. Taking 5th was about as good as they were going to get and they'll be happy with that. They fell at the first hurdle in both domestic cups, but away ties to Sporting and Porto made that almost inevitable. Their manager Pepa left in the summer for near-neighbours Vitoria, one of NES's former clubs. Here are the goals and highlights from their last round games against Larne: And here is their weekend loss to Boavista: No real injury news, at the moment. I'll update things if anything interesting comes in. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Tanganga, Sanchez, Dier, Reguilon; Hojbjerg, Skipp, Alli; Moura, Son, Bergwijn. Subs: Gollini, Doherty, Romero, Davies, Winks, Lo Celso, Sissoko, Gil, Scarlett. Pacos: A.Ferreira; Fonseca, Baixinho, Ramos, Antunes; Carlos, Eustaquio; Delgado, Santos, L.Silva; Denilson. Subs: Jeimes, J.Silva, Lima, Pires, H.Ferreira, Uilton, Djalo, Pedro, Tanque. Ref: Maurizio Mariani (ITA). Unfamiliar with this Serie A official and I don't think there's any VAR for this. TV: Premier Sports 1. How would you like to line up for this one? Would you stick with much of the same lineup from the City game, tinker a little or change it completely? Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Pacos to go with?
I'd make a few changes for this but want us to be pretty strong as we need to ensure we get through Pacos, then we can start giving opportunities to the likes of Scarlett, John and co. Gollini Tanganga, Sanchez, Cuti, Reguilon Lo Celso, Skipp, Hojbjerg Lucas, Son, Gil
What about - oh God what's his name. blonde fella, plays up front for us - name's on the tip of my tongue. Answers to Sugar.
Is the Fonseca in their lineup any relation to our much-linked potential manager, who used to manage Pacos?
Considering he was part of Porto's youth team when Fonseca was manager there, there's a decent chance Or it's a coinkidink, given it's a common Portuguese surname
He needed to be registered so we can play him in the home leg next week if we need/want to. Not too surprised he hasn’t travelled, given his reported fitness situation.
In that case Gollini Doherty Romero Rodon Davies John Winks Gio Clarke Scarlett Gill I’m not sure what else makes sense if we’re not starting players who started on Sunday, given the squad. Defence looks solid enough at least.
Ally Gold said that Nuno meant not involved in terms of starting the game but should be in the squad. Still quite a risk to make 11 changes though. I can understand doing so once we hopefully get through Pacos but feels a bit risky to do so now. I predicted about four changes would be made but guess not. Presume now something like: Gollini Doherty, Rodon, Cuti, Davies Sissoko, Winks, Lo Celso Clarke, Scarlett, Gil Quite inexperienced up top, Pacos are no mugs either. Think we’ll be heavily reliant on Lo Celso to make stuff happen. Edit: Ally Gold said Sissoko not with the squad, so presume John may get a start?
This is a weird one tbh. The ECL is irrelevant to vast swathes of Spurs fans (myself included), who would not risk a single first team player for a single minute of play. Our focus should be the league and domestic cups. This charity fun run tournament is good for nothing other than giving fringe players minutes to maintain fitness and youngsters to improve experience. So yes, qualifying for the thing is quite important. But we really shouldn't be stressing over the 6 group games.
