Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino will not "take risks" with any of his players' fitness ahead of Tuesday's Champions League game away to Monaco.
Spurs could be knocked out in the group stage if they fail to win.
Striker Harry Kane will be assessed having only just returned from an ankle injury, while a late decision will also be made on Dele Alli and Mousa Dembele.
"We must win but we need to see whether players __have fully recovered or not," said Pochettino on Monday.
Alli, 20, has been struggling with a knee injury while Dembele, 29, has a foot problem.
Spurs only __have four points from four group games, and failure to take three points coupled with Bayer Leverkusen beating CSKA Moscow would see them eliminated.
"We have a very good team in front of us and we have to be clever," added Pochettino.
"Some players might need to start on the bench and then come on and make an impact."
Spurs go into the match on the back of a 3-2 win over West Ham on Saturday.
Kane, who scored twice late on to hand his side a dramatic victory, said: "If we'd lost, it would have been difficult to get going again for Tuesday.
"Now it's the complete opposite. We're full of momentum. We'll take that straight into the Monaco game and, hopefully, win there."
Monaco only need a point from the match in order to secure their place in the last 16, but coach Leonardo Jardim said his side would not play for anything less than a victory.
"Yes a draw is enough but we will play our game to win," he said. "We cannot think about a draw because it's dangerous for us."
Monaco will be without midfielder Nabil Dirar, who is missing owing to personal issues.
Tricky one to call
- Monaco scored with each of their two shots on target in their 2-1 win against Tottenham back in September.
- Both teams have always scored in each of the three previous matches between Monaco and Tottenham.
- Monaco have only kept one clean sheet in their last 10 games against English clubs in all competitions. Meanwhile, Tottenham have never won an away game against French opposition in all competitions (D3 L1).
- Monaco have reached the knockout stages in five of their six Champions League campaigns while Tottenham also progressed from the group stage in their only previous appearance, in 2010/11.
- Monaco have lost only two of their last 19 Champions League games at home (W13 D4). Their last home defeat in the group stages dates back to September 2000 against Rangers (0-1).
- Monaco have also kept five clean sheets in their last seven Champions League games at home.
- Tottenham have yet to concede a goal in their two away games in the Champions League this season.
- However, Tottenham have failed to score more than one goal in each of their last eight Champions League games. In this season's group stages, only two of Tottenham's 52 shots have found the back of the net.
No comments:
Post a Comment