Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur will face the biggest test of their season when they come up against Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid in the mid-week Champions League clash. The vibrant English side will take on the European Champions for the group stage clash at Santiago Bernabeu.
Real Madrid have made a stuttering start to their La Liga defence but have been pitch-perfect in their Champions League campaign winning both of their matches. They will be up against Pochettino’s side who also won their opening matches this season. The fixture will be exciting to watch given both teams come into the match in good form after getting league victories over the weekend.
However, Tottenham will have a tough job tackling the reigning champions who have always produced their best football on Champions League nights.
Zidane rotated his squad over the weekend and is likely to field his strongest available side for the fixture against Spurs. Although the French manager will have to do without the injured Gareth Bale and Dani Carvajal. It will be interesting to see if he sticks to his new, young right-back Ach, af Hakimi. Modric is likely to return to the starting line-up and it will be an emotional day for the Croatian playing against his former employees.
Another aspect of the match will be the Harry Kane story. The Englishman is coming off his best goalscoring month after scoring 13 goals in September. This astonishing achievement put him on par with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who also have scored 13 goals each for their best goalscoring record in a month.
Should Harry Kane be able to grab the spotlight on the night, it will definitely add more spine to what might become the most talked about transfer for years to come.
Here is how Tottenham is expected to line-up with 3-4-3
Defence:
Hugo Lloris will be expected in goal and Pochettino’s three-man backline is likely to consist of Toby Alderweireld, summer signing Davinson Sanchez and makeshift centre-back Serge Aurier. Kieran Trippier is expected to start at right wing back with Jan Vertonghen to move to left wing back to take the place of the Ben Davies.
Midfield:
Eric Dier is likely to be one of holding midfielders with the other being young Harry Winks despite Pochettino confirming that the midfielder will most likely be available should everything go well.
Attack:
Harry Kane is expected to lead the line for his team and is likely to be flanked by Christian Eriksen and South Korean Son Heung-min, who will come in to take the place of the suspended Dele Alli.
This is how they might line up:
NOTE: Updates were made in the article to reflect two changes made in the predicted lineup from the original version of the article.
