One of the biggest clashes of the Champions League match day will take place in London on Wednesday, when Premier League side Tottenham host Catalan giants Barcelona at Wembley Stadium. The two teams have not met since 1982, when they clashed in the UEFA Cup semi-finals and Barcelona prevailed after a 1-1 draw in London and a 1-0 victory at home. Tottenham have won just two of their previous twelve matches against Spanish teams in European competitions. Barcelona on the other hand have won 32 of their 70 meetings against English opponents in continental competitions.
Tottenham had a very rough patch around the latest international break, they collected three consecutive defeats in all competitions either side of that break and it seemed that they were going into a deep crisis. However, they seem to have recovered from that last week by collecting three wins out of three, two in the Premier League and one in the League Cup. Last weekend the Spurs won 2-0 at Huddersfield and star striker Harry Kane scored both goals. Tottenham need a positive result here after having lost their inaugural Champions League match 2-1 at Inter Milan. Dele Alli is injured and won't be able to play against Barcelona, while Hugo Lloris, Michel Vorm, Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele are all injury doubts for manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Barcelona had their own tough period lately, they have not won a match since their last Champions League victory, 4-0 over PSV Eindhoven two weeks ago. Since then they were held to a draw at home by Girona, then lost 2-1 at Leganes and last weekend got held to a home draw once again by Athletic Bilbao. Lionel Messi started that last match on the bench but he came on in the second half and provided the assist for the late equalizer scored by Munir El Haddadi. Samuel Umtiti is suspended for Wednesday's match, while Sergi Roberto has a slight knock and might sit this one out.
Probable line-ups:
Tottenham: Gazzaniga - Aurier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Davies - Wanyama, Dier - Lamela, Eriksen, Son Heung-Min - Kane
Barcelona: Ter Stegen - Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Alba - Rakitic, Busquets, Coutinho - Messi, Suarez, Dembele
My prediction: 1-1 draw, it should be an entertaining match but none of the two sides seems capable of winning it at the moment.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Tottenham win - 3.50
Draw - 4.00
Barcelona win - 2.04
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