Tottenham Hotspur will face Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Winning against Barcelona at Camp Nou is not easy, and that is what Tottenham Hotspur may have to do in the end on Tuesday evening to progress to the last-16 stage of the Champions League this season.
Tottenham will go through if they draw with Barcelona in Spain and Inter Milan lose to PSV in Italy, but it is unlikely that the Italian giants will drop all three points against the already-eliminated Dutch club at home.
To be on the safe side, despite being second in the group at the moment due to a superior head-to-head record with Inter, Spurs should be going for the win at Camp Nou, and one suspects that manager Mauricio Pochettino will be preparing his players with that mindset.
Tottenham’s chances of winning will have been boosted by the fact that Barcelona have already won the group and gone through to last 16.
The North London club will also feel relieved that Luis Suarez will miss the match due to a knee injury and Lionel Messi is doubtful – a further boost to their chances of going through.
Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde told Eurosport: “I’ll make a change or two tomorrow, there’ll be players with knocks like Luis Suarez who I wasn’t planning on asking to play two games in a row to give him a rest.
“You’ll see tomorrow when the lineup is announced if Lionel Messi plays, but the important thing is that whoever is selected goes out onto the pitch motivated because they’ll come up against a side playing for their future.”
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