Redknapp and Wilkins identify potential Champions League problem for Tottenham Hotspur

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Spurs learned their Champions League group stage opponents on Thursday.

Writing in his London Evening Standard column, former Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has identified a potential problem for his old side in this season’s Champions League.

Redknapp, who managed the Lilywhites during their previous campaign in Europe’s premier club competition, claimed the White Hart Lane crowd was a “massive advantage”, which felt like it was “worth a goal start”.

Spurs, though, will play this season’s European home games at Wembley Stadium while construction work takes place on a new ground adjacent to their current one.

“Wembley will have a good atmosphere but I don’t think it will recreate the intensity of the Lane,” Redknapp wrote. “The crowd is too far away from the pitch, there will probably be a lot of corporate tickets and I just feel Spurs are losing something money can’t buy because those nights at the Lane were so special.

“The bigger pitch won’t suit them either. They like to press the ball under Mauricio Pochettino and anyone will tell you that is harder to do the bigger the surface is.

“There are wide open spaces at Wembley and that will make it a slower game because visiting teams will look to keep the ball and kill the noise. At the Lane, there was no hiding place.”

Redknapp is not alone in his thoughts, which were later echoed by former England midfielder Ray Wilkins on Talksport.

Speaking on Friday’s Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show, Wilkins said: “The problem I think Tottenham face is playing at Wembley. Everyone’s going to enjoy coming to Wembley to play Tottenham and that could be a little bit of a downfall.”

However, Wilkins went on to add that avoiding a winter away tie against CSKA Moscow was a big plus for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Spurs will hope to have better luck at the national stadium than north London rivals Arsenal, who held Champions League games there for two seasons running between 1998 and 1999, but failed to progress from the first group stage on both occasions.