Tottenham Hotspur aim to climb the UEFA Europa League table on Thursday when they travel to Rangers for a crucial European match. Spurs sit in ninth place heading into matchday six, with three wins out of five but after mixed results domestically and continentally. Rangers have an identical record but are slightly ahead of Spurs on goal differential, putting them in eighth place ahead of the Europa League premier clash.
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How to watch and odds
- Date: Thursday December 12 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Ibrox Stadium – Glasgow, Scotland
- Watch: Paramount+
- Odds: Rangers +230; Draw +280; Tottenham Hotspur -105
Scenarios
Tottenham remain one of the best attacking teams in the Premier League and Europa League, but have not really been able to capitalize on their attacking strengths in recent weeks. Since beating Manchester City 4-0 in a domestic match last week, they are winless in four and this big victory is the only one in their last seven. Their attack appears some days and disappears others – scoring 11 goals in four of their last seven matches and just two in the other three. They’ve been a bit porous at the back, conceding 12 goals during this seven-game stretch, but they haven’t been on the wrong side of lopsided defeats – whether they’re high-scoring games or of smaller matchups, the Spurs only lost by one. but the days they came out without points.
This makes Tottenham a special team to look at, but perhaps part of that can be explained by their injury crisis. Ange Postecoglou described the long list of injuries as the worst of his coaching career “by far”, with some very important players ineligible to play. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is out after fracturing his ankle against City, while centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are back on the sidelines after making brief returns in Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea. Ben Davies, a rotational option on the backline, is also out while Richarlison and promising newcomer Wilson Odobert are dealing with long-term issues.
The injury crisis is making things difficult for Postecoglou, who started this season alternating his options but may be unable to do so now despite the festive season business for English clubs. However, expect Radu Dragusin to play a role in the backline while Son Heung-min, Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison could still shake things up in attack.
Projected programming
Forster, Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Udogie, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Maddison, Werner, Solanke, Son
Prediction
Given Spurs’ injury crisis, it will be a hard-fought game for the visitors, but if they can get the best out of their attackers on Thursday, they could well come away from Scotland with a victory. Take: Rangers 0, Tottenham Hotspur 2
