Europa League
2011-09-29 - Tottenham Hotspur vs Shamrock Rovers
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : Europa League Match Day 2
Thursday 29 September 2011 - Kickoff 8:05pm
This game is live on TV
Tottenham Hotspur
Let's face the facts- Tottenham Hotspur really do not want to be in this competition and therefore Harry Redknapp is making sure he does not risk his players that are going to play the majority of the Premier League games, especially not days before the first North London Derby of the season.
Tottenham moved up to 6th in the Premier League thanks a 3rd consecutive League win on Saturday at Wigan, and they have now compiled a 3-0-2 record in the League. Spurs are 1-0-1 at home where they have scored 5 goals and conceded 5 goals.
The team are unbeaten in their last 5 games since losing 1-5 to Manchester City, and they have only conceded 1 goal in those 5 games while they have won 3 of them. Spurs have lost just 1 of their last 7 games at White Hart Lane in all competitions and they have kept 2 clean sheets in their 3 home games this season.
Spurs drew their only game in the Group 0-0 at PAOK.
Harry Redknapp is expected to rest all 11 players that are expected to play against Arsenal on Sunday. Aaron Lennon is back in the squad after injury, while Roman Pavlyuchenko and Steven Pienaar are both expected to start as although Michael Dawson and William Gallas are out. Spurs are expected to bring in a few youngsters as well in the starting line up.
Shamrock Rovers
Shamrock Rovers have really exceeded expectations this season by even being in Europe at this late stage, and they face possibly the one team they would have secretly wanted to draw when the Groups were decided in August.
The team are the current Irish Champions, but are currently in a fight for the title with Sligo Rovers with both sides on 61 points, although Shamrock do have a game in hand. Shamrock are 8-5-3 away from home in the domestic League, scoring 22 goals and conceding 11. They are 0-2-1 away from home in European competition this season, with the draw at Partizan being the most impressive result.
It could be suggested that Shamrock were perhaps looking ahead to their trip to London as they had failed to win in 4 games until beating Bray Wanderers 5-2 at home over the weekend. Shamrock lost 1-0 at Sligo in their last away game, but they had been unbeaten in the last 6 games away from home.
Craig Sives missed the win over Bray Wanderers, but is expected to return for this game. Ken Oman is another player that is hoping to be passed fit for the biggest game of his career.
Prediction
You have to like Tottenham to win this game, but I think it could be tougher than expected as they will be making wholesale changes to the side which made lead to a disjointed performance.
You have to expect Shamrock Rovers will set out a disciplined team that will look to defend in numbers for as long as possible and then hope to counter Spurs and nick a goal on the break.
However, I have to think that Spurs will eventually be too good for their Irish opponents, so I will look for them to win this game with a clean sheet to boot.
Tottenham have been better defensively in the last 5 games and the much changed side produced a clean sheet when playing in PAOK on Match Day 1, so I have to expect they will go a little better and make sure they win the game with the clean sheet this time.
The Pick :
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Shamrock Rovers
