Tottenham Hotspur will play hosts to Barcelona at the Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night, hoping to earn their first points of this year’s UEFA Champions League campaign. Spurs suffered a narrow 2-1 loss at the hands of Inter Milan on the opening night and are now in need of securing a result versus the Catalans in midweek. However, it won’t be an easy feat to stop Barca from scoring on the night after some of their first-teamers were rested over the weekend.
Mauricio Pochettino is expected to opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation and might start with Erik Lamela in his first-team for this European encounter.
4-2-3-1 Tottenham Hotspur Predicted Lineup To Face Barcelona
Defence
Paulo Gazzaniga would play as the first-choice keeper once again in Pochettino’s starting XI in the absence of Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm while the youngster, Alfie Whiteman sits on the Tottenham bench. The defensive duo of Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sanchez is expected to continue their partnership at the centre of Spurs’ backline as Jan Vertonghen is a significant doubt for this crunch tie.
Kieran Trippier will feature as the right-back while Danny Rose could look to join in on the attack down the left flank. The Tottenham defenders finally managed to keep a clean sheet at the weekend against Huddersfield Town and would now look to build on that performance by keeping things tight at the Wembley Stadium on Wednesday.
Midfield
The midfield pair of Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele will continue to feature at the centre of the park, operating as the holding midfielders. They will be tasked with protecting the Tottenham backline while also providing some ammunition for their players in the opposition half.
The promising trio of Heung-min Son, Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura could be unleashed ahead of them as part of Pochettino’s attack. Lamela has arguably been Tottenham’s best player going forward over the past few weeks so he will look to link up with Kane up top and cause some problems for the Catalans’ defence.
Attack
Harry Kane will once again be responsible for leading the lines for Spurs after scoring a brace of goals against the Terriers on Saturday afternoon. The English forward is slowly coming back to his best, and this European encounter versus Barca could serve as a perfect opportunity for him to get some confidence back while playing at the highest level.
