The 2020/21 UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds continue on Thursday night and we have reached the third round stage of the tournament. There are some big teams involved including Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League and they travel to North Macedonia to take on Shkendija 79.
The hosts have made a decent start to the season and currently sit top of the First League table in North Macedonia. They have played 6 matches in the league, winning 4 and drawing 2, leaving them 1 point clear of Shkupi.
Trends show Shkendija 79 are undefeated in all competitions this season. That includes two victories in the Europa League, beginning in the first round against Sumqayıt away from home.
Shkendija 79 came away with a 2-0 victory to progress to the second round and a meeting with Botoşani in Romania. Once again, Shkendija 79 managed to keep a clean sheet and having opened the scoring early in the game they survived having a man sent off to win 1-0.
The 2 victories achieved by Shkendija 79 this season are their only 2 wins from their last 8 Europa League games. They have struggled when playing against decent opposition with defeats at home coming against AC Milan and Rosenborg, 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. In fact, Shkendija 79 have lost each of their last 3 home Europa League matches.
Tottenham Hotspur travel to the Toše Proeski Arena having secured an excellent 5-2 win at Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday. It was an important victory for Spurs as they were defeated 1-0 at home by Everton on the opening weekend of the season. They fell a goal behind against Southampton but responded superbly in the second half to score 4 goals and win the game comfortably.
Spurs were due to play Leyton Orient in the League Cup on Tuesday night but the match was cancelled due to the number of Leyton Orient players testing positive for COVID-19. Therefore, the squad will have had more time to rest and prepare for this game than first anticipated at the beginning of the week.
This will be the second game for Spurs in the Europa League this season. They entered the competition in the second qualifying round, beating Lokomotiv Plovdiv 2-1 away from home. Spurs fell behind in the match but scored two late goals to progress.
Team news and Shkendija 79 should be close to full strength for this game. They will be looking towards experienced striker Besart Ibraimi for goals.
Tottenham Hotspur travel without Gareth Bale and Japhet Tanganga due to injury. There are also doubts over the fitness of new signing Sergio Reguilón.
⚡ That Harry-Sonny link-up ⚡@AudiUK ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/C0unNGk6xt— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 21, 2020
⚡ That Harry-Sonny link-up ⚡@AudiUK ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/C0unNGk6xt
Spurs struggled in the previous around against Bulgarian opposition and may find this is another frustrating night away from home. However, as proven on the weekend against Southampton, Spurs have the quality in attack to breakdown the home defence and win the match.