Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
This tie is very much all to play for after the two sides drew in Florence last Thursday. Tottenham will feel they have the slight advantage after Nacer Chadli’s Penalty gave them a crucial away goal last week but Fiorentina will look to emulate what Crystal Palace did on Sunday and that is win at White Hart Lane and knock them out of a Cup competition.
On Sunday it wasn’t quite Spurs’ day as Crystal Palace got the better of them and progressed through to the Quarter Finals of the F.A. Cup. Palace were resolute at the back and Tottenham try as they might just couldn’t break them down. For all the luck that Spurs have had as of late it certainly wasn’t with them when Dele Alli’s shot hit both posts and agonisingly rolled across the line before being cleared to safety.
Obviously Tottenham don’t want to be knocked out of any Cup competition but if you were to ask anyone which would they have sacrificed if push came to shove then it would probably be the F.A. Cup, the challenge now for Mauricio Pochettino is to make sure that competing on three fronts doesn’t become just one in the space of less than a week
The task will be made harder with injuries to Harry Kane, Mousa Demble and Tom Carroll who join Jan Vertonghen on the sidelines for this encounter. Kane suffered a broken nose and will now play in a mask for Sunday’s Premier League tie against Swansea while Mousa Dembele is now ruled out for a week with his expected return set to be the North London Derby next Saturday.
On Sunday Michel Vorm came in for some criticism as Martin Kelly’s shot arrowed past him at the near post. Although Hugo Lloris has recovered from his injury at the end of the Manchester City game, the understudy Vorm looks set to keep his place with Lloris set to resume in between the sticks on Sunday
Tottenham’s opposition Tonight Fiorentina arguably finished the first leg stronger last Thursday and will probably consider themselves unlucky not to have turned the game around after going behind. Federico Bernadeschi’s long range equaliser seemed to wake The Viola up and seemed the most likely side to go on and get a winner
Last Weekend Fiorentina won a thrilling encounter in Bergamo with a 3-2 win over Atalanta, that win keeps them 3rd in Serie A and they are currently filling the last Champions League spot with Roma hot on their heels just two points behind.
As for Tonight, Tottenham will no doubt once to bounce back from the disappointment of Sunday and make sure they stay in the Europa League the task will certainly be more difficult without Harry Kane so the supporting cast are going to have to step up and get the job done.
It’s a chance for Nacer Chadli to once again strengthen his credentials as the perfect backup Striker. As long as Tottenham don’t concede then they’ll go through. In the main their Defence has look solid this season so could even see this being a tense 0-0 with Spurs going through on Away Goals. This is going to be a tense watch if you’re a Spurs fan.
