Tromsø take Tottenham to task

Tromsø IL will have a chance to see how Tottenham Hotspur FC bear up to cold weather on matchday five as bottom hosts top in UEFA Europa League Group K.

• Tromsø can finish no higher than third in the section, and while Spurs have already confirmed their place in the knockout stage, a win in Norway would guarantee top spot in Group K – and mean they play the second leg of their round of 32 tie at home as one of the 16 seeded teams.

Previous meetings
• Two Jermain Defoe strikes and a Christian Eriksen effort late on secured a 3-0 win for Spurs when the sides met for the first time on matchday one. It was Tromsø's heaviest away defeat in this competition.

• Tromsø's previous experience of English opponents amounted to a single tie. The club recorded a famous 3-2 victory at home against Chelsea FC in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round – it might have been even better had Gianluca Vialli not scored twice for the Blues in the last ten minutes. The Italian then scored a hat-trick in the second leg as Chelsea won 7-1 – still Tromsø's heaviest defeat in Europe.

• Tottenham's only prior experience of Norwegian opponents dates back 41 years to a two-legged UEFA Cup first round tie against FK Lyn. The then holders won 6-3 in Oslo and 6-0 at White Hart Lane, with England international Martin Chivers scoring a total of five goals in the tie.

Match background
• Tromsø have had the fewest shots on target in the group stage, with just four going into matchday five – an average of one a game.

• Tromsø reached the group phase of the 2005/06 UEFA Cup, but finished bottom of their section with a win and three defeats. This season they started in the first qualifying round, and have reached this stage despite losing their last five European away games without scoring. Beaten 3-2 by Beşiktaş JK in the play-offs, Tromsø were reinstated following the Turkish club's disqualification.

• Tottenham, ACF Fiorentina and FC Salzburg are the only sides with 100% records in this season's group stage. Only three clubs have ever won all six of their group stage matches, the first of these being Salzburg, in the competition’s inaugural 2009/10 season. Their feat was subsequently matched by FC Zenit (2010/11) and RSC Anderlecht (2011/12).

• This is Tottenham's sixth UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League group stage campaign, and they also competed in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage, meaning that they have been involved in one group stage or another for seven of the last eight seasons; their only absence was in 2009/10. They have only once missed out on the knockout stage in those campaigns – in 2011/12.

Team facts
• Jermain Defoe's successful penalty for Tottenham at home to FC Sheriff brought him his fifth UEFA Europa League goal of the season, putting him top of the 2013/14 scoring charts outright. It was his 23rd goal in European competition, enabling him to bypass Chivers as Spurs' all-time top European marksman.

• Hugo Lloris, Aaron Lennon and Mousa Dembélé are all in line to make their 50th UEFA club competition appearances if they are selected for the London club in Norway.

• Spurs are within four goals of their 350th in UEFA club competition; this is their 170th UEFA game.

• Spurs have the group stage's best disciplinary record, with just two yellow cards in the first four matchdays.

• Based inside the Arctic Circle, Tromsø are the most northerly side in the group stage – 4,299km separates them from the southernmost representatives, Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC.

• Tottenham’s American goalkeeper Brad Friedel became the UEFA Europa League’s oldest participant with his appearance against Sheriff at White Hart Lane. He displaced another keeper, FC Twente’s Sander Boschker, as he took to the field aged 42 years and 173 days – 140 days older than Boschker.

• Tottenham (1972, 1984) are one of five teams in the group stage who have won this trophy before. The others are Valencia CF (2004), Eintracht Frankfurt (1980), PSV Eindhoven (1978) and fellow two-time winners Sevilla FC (2006, 2007).

• Tromsø defender Jaroslaw Fojut was a trainee at Bolton Wanderers FC from 2004 to 2009. He spent time out on loan at Luton Town FC and Stockport County FC before returning home to Poland.

• Notable Norwegians who have played for Tottenham in the past include goalkeepers Erik Thorstvedt (1989-96) and Espen Baardsen (1996-2000), midfielder Øyvind Leonhardsen (1999-2002) and forward Steffen Iversen (1996-2003).

• Former Tromsø goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld was on Tottenham's books from 2002 to 2004 but never made a competitive appearance for the club.

Coach information
• Tromsø dismissed coach Agnar Christensen on 1 October after a 3-2 league defeat at home against IK Start. They finished second from bottom in Norway and have been relegated.

• Steinar Nilsen has taken temporary command at Tromsø after serving as Christensen's assistant. Born in the city, the twice-capped 41-year-old defender served Tromsø in two spells as a player, either side of five years in Italy with AC Milan and SSC Napoli. This is his third spell as the club's coach – he notably led them into the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage in his first period in charge.

• The only coach in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League group stage to have won the competition in its current incarnation, André Villas-Boas learned his coaching craft under Sir Bobby Robson and José Mourinho. After a first solo venture at A. Académica de Coimbra, he led FC Porto to an extraordinary league, cup and UEFA Europa League treble in 2010/11. He fared less well at Chelsea FC, but regained his footing after joining Tottenham in July 2012.

• Villas-Boas is one of four coaches in the group stage who have had their hands on the trophy before, winning the UEFA Europa League with Porto in 2010/11. The others are new AZ Almaar boss Dick Advocaat (FC Zenit, 2008), PAOK FC's Huub Stevens, who won it as a player (PSV Eindhoven, 1978) and a coach (FC Schalke 04, 1997) and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's Juande Ramos (Sevilla FC, 2006 and 2007).