Spurs and Lyon targeting round of 16

Having joined Tottenham Hotspur FC from Olympique Lyonnais in the summer, Hugo Lloris will have a quick reunion with his former team in the UEFA Europa League round of 32.

Previous meetings
• Tottenham and Lyon met in the second round of the 1967/68 European Cup Winners' Cup, Louis Hon's side overcoming Bill Nicholson's Spurs on away goals, following a 1-0 win at home and a 4-3 defeat at White Hart Lane.

• The teams for the first leg at the Stade de Gerland on 29 November 1967 were:
Lyon: Chauveau, Flohic, Kuffer, Lhomme, Rocco, Maison, Schwinn, Di Nallo, Guy, Lekkak, Rambert.
Tottenham: Jennings, Kinnear, Knowles, Greaves, Hoy, MacKay, Mullery, Robertson, Venables, Gilzean, Jones.

• The teams for the White Hart Lane return on 13 December 1967 were:
Tottenham: Jennings, Kinnear, Knowles, Bond, Greaves, Hoy, MacKay, Robertson, Venables, Gilzean, Jones.
Lyon: Chauveau, Flohic, Kuffer, Lhomme, Rocco, Maison, Schwinn, Bouassa, Di Nallo, Pin, Rambert.

Match background
• Spurs' only other games against French sides produced a 1-0 aggregate win against FC Nantes in the 1971/72 UEFA Cup. The north London club have a 100% home record against Ligue 1 opponents.

• Lyon have played 14 games against English teams in total, with the record W3 D6 L5 (W1 D5 L1 at home – W2 D1 L4 in England).

• Spurs (W2 D4) and Lyon (W5 D1) are both unbeaten in all six of their European games this season after entering at the group stage.

• Tottenham, who were runners-up in Group J, have made it to the round of 32 for a fourth time since the advent of the UEFA Cup group stage in 2004/05. They made it through to the round of 16 at their first two attempts (in 2006/07 and 2007/08) but missed out in their most recent (in 2008/09).

• Group I winners Lyon are featuring in this competition for the first time since 2002/03. Their best UEFA Cup campaign was a run to the quarter-finals in 1998/99.

Team facts
• Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris will be up against the club he left last summer. The France No1 joined Lyon from OGC Nice in 2008, winning the French Cup in his final season before heading to White Hart Lane.

• Lyon's Steed Malbranque spent two seasons at Tottenham (2006–08) between spells at Fulham FC and Sunderland AFC.

• Spurs defender Younes Kaboul and striker Jermain Defoe played alongside Arnold Mvuemba for some of the Lyon midfielder's stay at Portsmouth FC (2007–09).

• The clubs also have a notable old boy in common in striker Frédéric Kanouté: now 35, he started his career with Lyon (1997–2000) and spent two years at Spurs (2003–05) but enjoyed his best European years at Sevilla FC, where he won back-to-back UEFA Cups in 2005/06 and 2006/07.

• Spurs won the inaugural UEFA Cup in 1971/72 and reclaimed the trophy in 1983/84, and could become the fourth side to win this competition for a third time, along with Juventus, FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC.

• Of the sides in the round of 32, Lyon, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and FC Viktoria Plzeň are the quickest off the blocks after the break this season, with four of their goals coming within 15 minutes of the restart.

• Lyon right-back Loïc Abenzoar turns 24 on the day of the game. He has yet to play in a UEFA club game.

• Tottenham manager André Villas-Boas received his first break in coaching as a teenager from then Porto boss Sir Bobby Robson, and later assisted José Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea FC and FC Internazionale Milano, before striking out alone at A. Académica de Coimbra and then leading Porto to a domestic double and the UEFA Cup in 2010/11. A move to Chelsea that summer proved to be ill-fated, but he took charge at Spurs in July 2012.

• Rémi Garde replaced Claude Puel as Lyon boss in June 2011, having worked behind the scenes as a coach and assistant manager since 2003, and also as a television pundit after hanging up his boots. Capped six times by France, Garde played as a defender for Lyon and then RC Strasbourg, finishing his career in England at Arsenal FC.

Round of 16: Tottenham/Lyon v FC Internazionale Milano/CFR 1907 Cluj
• The first legs will be played on 7 March, with the returns the following Thursday.

• Both Spurs and Lyon have played Inter before.

• Inter and Spurs met in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage: Spurs lost 4-3 at San Siro (even though Gareth Bale scored a hat-trick) but won 3-1 at White Hart Lane – a game remembered as a classic by the London club's fans.

• Inter and Lyon first met in the 1958/59 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – the non-UEFA affiliated precursor to the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League – with Inter winning 7-0 in Milan then drawing 1-1 in France. Four more recent meetings in UEFA competition have been a little closer. Inter eliminated Lyon from the second round of the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, 4-3 on aggregate, but Lyon had the better of their 2002/03 UEFA Champions League first group stage contests, drawing 3-3 at home 18 days after a 2-1 win in Milan.