Tottenham v Gent background
Friday, February 17, 2017
Article summary
Tottenham Hotspur have never lost at home to Belgian opponents but they require more than a Wembley draw against Gent to remain in the UEFA Europa League.
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Article body
Tottenham Hotspur's UEFA Europa League participation hangs in the balance as they welcome Gent to Wembley trailing 1-0 in their round of 32 tie.
• Jérémy Perbet's first-leg goal, ten minutes after Tottenham's Harry Kane had hit the woodwork, gave Gent coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck a slender victory to celebrate on his 53rd birthday.
Previous meetings
• The clubs met for the first time in the opening leg.
• Spurs have yet to lose at home against Belgian opponents (W3 D1). Their nine matches against Belgian sides have ended W3 D3 L3.
• In their only previous UEFA tie against English opponents, Gent lost 2-1 on aggregate to eventual winners West Ham United in the 1964/65 European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round.
Form guide
• A 3-1 win against CSKA Moskva on matchday six ended Spurs' run of three successive home European defeats.
• Gent have lost only one of their five away games in Europe this season (W2 D2 L1) – 5-0 at Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stage.
• European Cup Winners' Cup winners in 1963, and UEFA Cup winners in 1972 and 1984, Spurs reached last season's UEFA Europa League round of 16, where they were beaten by Borussia Dortmund.
• Tottenham's transfer from the UEFA Champions League means they are appearing in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase for the fifth successive season, matching the feat of Rubin from 2009/10–2013/14. Only Ajax, with six successive participations (2009/10–2014/15), can beat that figure.
• Gent made it to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 last season, losing to Wolfsburg. Their best UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League campaign came in 1991/92, when they were eliminated by Ajax in the quarter-finals. The first-leg win against Spurs was their first victory in a springtime UEFA game at the fifth attempt (previously D1 L3).
Links and trivia
• The journey from Ghent to London is around 275km.
• Spurs boast Belgian talent in the form of Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Mousa Dembélé, though only the latter (with Germinal Beerschot, 2004–05) ever played club football in his home country.
• Spurs need four more goals to reach 400 in UEFA club competition. With 396 in 202 games to date, they have averaged around 1.96 goals per game so far.
• Spurs midfielder Victor Wanyama and Gent's Rami Gershon and Rabiu Ibrahim were team-mates at Celtic in 2012/13.
• Gent's Nana Asare and Spurs reserve goalkeeper Michael Vorm were club-mates at Utrecht (2009–11).
• Spurs (1972, 1984) are one of seven former UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League winners in the round of 32, along with Borussia Mönchengladbach (1975 & 1979), Anderlecht (1983), Ajax (1992), Schalke (1997), Zenit (2008) and Shakhtar (2009).
The coaches
• Former Argentina centre-back Maurico Pochettino has been in charge of Spurs since summer 2014, having impressed in spells at Espanyol and Southampton. He spent the bulk of his playing career with Espanyol, but also represented Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux in France.
• Vanhaezebrouck guided Gent to the Belgian title in 2014/15 and steered them to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 last season. He established his reputation during two periods in the dugout of home-town club Kortrijk, for whom he had also played.
Penalty shoot-outs
• Spurs' record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L2 (W1 at home – L2 away):
W 4-3 H v Anderlecht (1983/84 UEFA Cup final)
L 6-5 A v PSV Eindhoven (2007/08 UEFA Cup round of 16)
L 4-1 A v Basel (2012/13 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals)
• Gent's record in two UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L1:
L 4-3 H v Vardar (2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup second round)
W 4-1 A v Lausanne (1991/92 UEFA Cup first round)