On February 16th, K.A.A Gent will host Tottenham at the Ghelamco Arena. After a disappointing loss away to Liverpool, Tottenham will travel again this time to Belgium in the Europa League round of 32.
Gent currently sit eighth in the Belgian Pro League, 12 points off of leaders Anderlecht. Gent have won only two of their last 10 league matches, and haven't won a league match while conceding a goal since September 24th. In the group stages of the Europa League the Belgian side lost both their matches against Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, drew both their matches against Porteguese side S.C. Braga, and won both their matches against Turkish side Konyaspor.
With a chance to close the gap at the top of the table on Chelsea, Tottenham suffered a deserved 2-0 loss to Liverpool. The north London side was totally outplayed on the night and blew their chance to stay in the Premier League title race. Now they'll go into the Europa League, a competition they hope they can avoid next season with a top four finish. Winning the competition does guarantee a spot in the Champions League though, so Tottenham will look to progress.
Gent will need to go into the away leg with a lead to go through, so they'll be depending on one of their strikers to get them a goal or two. Jeremey Perbet will be hoping he can deliver on that. The 32 year old has six league goals in 10 starts for Gent this season. He was also able to grab a goal in Gent's 5-3 loss to Shakhtar Donetsk. He'll hope this time he can grab a Europa League goal in a win.
Vincent Janssen made a 17m move to Tottenham from AZ Alkmaar in the summer and it hasn't gone quite according to plan. He has scored four goals in all competitions, but all of them have been from the penalty spot. He was never meant to come in as the finished product, but he has failed to impress in his first six months in north London. He'll likely get a chance to start both legs of this tie and will look to take this chance to get a goal from open play and finally start showing some of his talent.
Spurs will be heavy favourites in this tie and really should go through. Even if they rotate their lineup heavily, it will still be a big disappointment if they don't win pretty comfortably.
Categories: EPL Index Featured Article, EPL Index Match Previews, Tottenham Hotspur, and Tottenham Hotspur (NN).' 'Tags: EL Preview, Europa League, Europa League Preview, Gent, Janssen, KAA Gent, Liverpool, Spurs, Tottenham, and Vincent Janssen.