. Premier League Matchday - last year
. See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
. All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats
Spurs' record in Europe:-
U.E.F.A Champions League
P W D L F - A
53 22 12 19 90 - 75
(Finalists 2019)
European Cup
P W D L F - A
8 4 1 3 21 - 13
(Semi-Finalists 1962)
European Cup Winners Cup
P W D L F - A
33 20 5 8 65 - 34
(Winners 1963)
UEFA Cup/Europa League
P W D L F - A
158 91 38 29 323-140
(Winners 1972, 1984
Finalists 1974)
Europa Conference League
P W D L F - A
7 3 1 3 14 - 9
+ Forfeited one game due to Covid - 09/12/21)
Total
P W D L F - A
259 140 57 62 513-271
Europa League Placings
Pos P W D L F-A GD Pts
Rangers 8 5 3 1 1 12-6 6 10
Spurs 9 5 3 1 1 10-6 4 10
Europa League Placings in full
Will Spurs take the high road or low road?
The Spurs Odyssey Flag
Spurs travel to Glasgow for tomorrow's sixth Europa League match against Rangers. Until this season, December would see the final game in the league phase of European football, but of course we have two more such games in January.
This fixture could be a pivotal one in terms of both teams' future path in the competition. A win could see the victors become favourites to finish in the top eight and avoid a play-off round. Rangers are above us in eighth place on goal difference only. Will Spurs take the high road or the low road into the next phase?
Rangers are managed by Philippe Clement, formerly a player and manager of Club Brugge. Clement played against Spurs in a 2006 UEFA Cup match, and managed Monaco before joining Rangers last year.
Rangers finished second, eight points behind arch-rivals Celtic last season. They played and lost in a Champions League qualifier against Dynamo Kyiv. In their five Europa League matches so far they have beaten Malmo (A) 2-0, FCSB (Steaua Bucuresti) 4-0 at home and Nice (A) by an impressive 4-1. Rangers drew away to Olympiacos and lost 4-1 at home to Lyon.
Rangers' top Europa League scorers are Moroccan forward Hamza Igamane (3) and Czech international Vaclav Cerny (3), who also tops Rangers' domestic chart with 6 league goals. Cerny is on loan from Wolfsburg. Familiar names in the Rangers squad include goalkeeper Jack Butland, and Bradford-born skipper James Tavernier who signed for Rangers in 2015 and has 329 SPL appearances to his name.
This season, Rangers sit third in the SPL, 11 points behind Celtic, which does not bode well for their rivalry. Rangers' one league title in the last 13 years was in 2020-21, but they did spend the time between 2012 and 2016 having to fight their way back to the top flight after their financial and administrative difficulties. Rangers topped the league in each stage of that journey, but it took them two years to get promoted from The Championship.
During that battle to regain top flight status, two lesser-known Spurs names assisted. Nathan Oduwa (currently playing in South Korea) and Dominic Ball (currently with Leyton Orient) were both Spurs Academy products who spent time with Rangers.
In previous years there have been some famous players who have played for both clubs including 1901 FA Cup winner Sandy Tait, and in recent history the likes of Alfie Conn, Mark Falco, Graeme Souness, Richard Gough, Graham Roberts, Paul Gascoigne and Jermain Defoe. You can add Gordon Durie, Alan Hutton, Niko Kranjcar and Pedro Mendes to that list.
The last time we played Rangers was in a pre-season friendly two years ago two years ago, when we won 2-1, thanks to two Harry Kane goals. The winners were presented with The Walter Tull Trophy. Having played for Spurs, Walter Tull was associated with Rangers in 1917 but never played for them due to his fall in World War One action in 1918.
Fraser Forster, Rodrigo Bentancur, Dejan Kulusevski and Son Heung-min featured in that 2022 game, and we are likely to see all four tomorrow.
Fraser Forster played in 168 SPL games for Celtic in three spells between 2011 and 2020 and is sure of a hot reception, along with former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou of course!
I remember attending pre-season friendlies in 2004 against both Celtic and Rangers. Before the Rangers game, I was in a hotel sitting at the next breakfast table to the legendary Andy Goram, regarded by most Rangers fans as their greatest ever goalkeeper. Goram sadly died in early July 2022 aged just 58. he starred for the club in the trophy-laden nineties.
We've played just two competitive games against Rangers. The story of our only competitive meeting is told here. Spurs conquered Rangers 8-4 on aggregate in the first round of the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1962. We were on our way to our historic 1963 trophy win!
Rangers were the 1972 Cup Winners' Cup winners and finished runners-up in four other finals, most recently the 2022 Europa League final when they lost a penalty-shoot-out to Oliver Glasner's Eintracht Frankfurt. Spurs drew away and beat Eintracht 3-2 at home in the following season's Champions League.
Rangers are on a run of 8 unbeaten games in all competitions and in front of their massive partisan crowd will offer formidable opposition. Spurs will need to be at their best. Yves Bissouma will be suspended for Sunday's game at Southampton, so there's no reason why he should not start beside Bentancur tomorrow. Bentancur is in the middle of an enforced absence from domestic games, so gets a rare outing this month. Pape Sarr might be given a deserved break from starting. There must be scope for both Maddison and Kulusevski starting this game.
I await team news of our casualties after Sunday's game, but I do fancy a narrow win for Spurs.
Match referee Sandro Scharer and his on-field officials are from Switzerland. Mr. Scharer is our sixth "new" referee off the season, all of which have been in our Europa League matches. Over the last year Mr. Scharer has officiated in an equal number (11) of domestic games and European and International games.
Top of page | Index to 2024-25 Match Reports