Tottenham Hotspur v Young Boys
Football : Champions League 2nd Leg
Wednesday 25 August 2010 - Kickoff 7:45pm

The match is live on TV

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Tottenham Hotspur

The fact that Tottenham Hotspur are still in this tie with a chance of progressing to the group stage of the Champions League led Harry Redknapp to label last weeks terrible performance as a 'great defeat'. Tottenham found themselves 3-0 down after only half an hour of football but their Champions League dreams were resurrected with 2 goals to only trail by 1 here.

The pitch at in Bern seemed to affect Tottenham badly for most of the game and they will be much happier playing on a familiar surface here. Spurs have made a solid start to their Premier League campaign this season, drawing with Manchester City here and winning at Stoke City. Harry Redknapp will hope his side can make the best of their 14-2-3 record at White Hart Lane in the League last season and convert that form for the European run he is hoping they have.

Jermain Defoe will play a part in this match before he undergoes surgery and misses a month of action. William Gallas is not registered but a further boost is provided by the returns of Roman Pavyluchenko, Giovani dos Santos and Robbie Keane but Luka Modric remains out.

Possible Tottenham Hotspur Line Up: Gomes, Corluka, King, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Palacious, Huddlestone, Bale, Defoe and Pavyluchenko (4-4-2)

Young Boys

Young Boys will be kicking themselves for not putting the finishing touches to a Spurs team they had rocking against the ropes. The fact they only won 3-2 after leading 3-0 can be made all the worse when considering they had not one, but two opportunities to stretch that lead before Pavyluchenko cut the deficit. This game now takes on a whole new meaning and situation for them.

The side managed to beat Zurich at home during the weekend as they returned to winning ways in the Swiss League. Young Boys will also look to the earlier round of the Champions League when they travelled to Turkey to face Fenerbache after conceding 2 goals at home in the first leg. On that occasion they went to Istanbul with only a draw from the game at home, yet still managed to win 0-1 and go through.

Emiliano Dudar and Hassan Lingani remain out for Young Boys and we can expect to see the same side that started so brightly and surprised so many last week. They will be set up to try and soak up the Spurs pressure that is expected and try to hit the English club on the break. Vladimir Petkovic will surely set his team up to keep things tight for as long as possible.

Prediction

Tottenham Hotspur have really started well in the Premier League and possibly are a little aggrieved to not have full points from their 2 games although remaining unbeaten. Spurs will want to start much as they did when Manchester City visited White Hart Lane a couple of weeks ago and we can expect a high tempo game from the hosts.

Young Boys certainly raised a few eyebrows for the neutrals as they completely tore Spurs apart for much of the first half last week. However, the record will show they only have a 1 goal lead. We must have respect for their win in Fenerbache, a really tough place to play football and get a result, but this is the toughest test many of their players would have faced in their career.

Tottenham are expected to be heavily backed and their prices are already short enough for me to ignore. If Spurs start off strong and get the goal that would be putting them through, Young Boys will have to attack more and could be picked apart by the pace of Bale and Lennon.

I think Spurs will win this comfortably enough and put themselves into Friday's main draw.

The Pick :

Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 Young Boys

HANDICAP BETTING :

Tottenham Hotspur -1.75 Asian Handicap