Spurs can make amends for their defeat in Gent by turning the tie around at Wembley.
Spurs v Gent – Thursday 20:05, BT Sport 1
Spurs suffered a shock defeat when they played the first leg of this fixture in Belgium last Thursday, but Harry Kane’s hat-trick in their weekend FA Cup win over Fulham will have given them a boost before they host Gent at Wembley this Thursday. Gent followed up their win over Tottenham with a draw at Standard Liege, and will be hoping to nab a crucial away goal in order to maximise their chances of progressing to the quarter-finals.
Spurs have not enjoyed their European adventure this season as they struggled in the Champions League group stage, losing three times and then failing to impress last week. However, in our European gradings we have Spurs more than 20 points higher (a significant margin) than Gent and since 2012/13 Spurs have played nine European home matches against teams 10-30 grading points below them, winning eight times with seven victories by more than one goal margins. Given how Spurs have improved as a team in recent years they should be quietly confident of progressing here. Moreover, Gent have been struggling this season and are way down in eighth in the Belgian league. Their domestic problems have almost all come on the road, as while they’ve got the second best home record they’ve won only one of 14 away matches while scoring just 11 times.
The closest side in terms of our rankings that Gent have been to in Europe this season was Shakhtar Donetsk and they were thrashed 5-0 in that clash. With them having struggled for goals all season, including scoring just twice in four European away matches (which includes a qualifying match), we expect Spurs to turn this around and do so with a clean sheet. The Spurs Win to Nil and can be backed at 2.05.
