Heavens 11

Tottenham Hotspur will be facing their sternest European test of the season tomorrow when facing Spanish title contenders Sevilla at the Sanchez Pizjuan. Spurs have given some of their best performances in this season’s Uefa Cup having beaten teams like Bayer Leverkusen, Besiktas and Club Brugge convincingly, teams that have oft participated in the Champions League in the last 5 years.

The young Tom Huddlestone will be out through injury and Ricardo Rocha, who is beginning to establish himself as the first choice to replace the injured Ledley King until the latters recovery, is cup tied. Nevertheless, Jol will keep the Zokora-Jenas partnership that has worked well in the past few games as the Ivorian gradually comes to terms with the premiership’s playing style. Sevilla on the other hand can count on Kanoute, Palop and Daniel Alves who were rested at the weekend.

The city of Seville is deep in religious celebration this week as it is Semana Santa, or holy week, which could prove be a distraction for the Andalusians. This game will be a closely run affair but both sides are not afraid to go forward with Seville being particularly lethal with the use of their wingers, Jesus Navas and Daniel Alves. Kanoute has had a little Renaissance in la Liga and is as dangerous as he has ever been in his hardly distinguished career and boy would he feel good if he could inflict damage on his old employers. Spurs have been good on the road in Europe and Berbatov has been in sparkiling form against continental opposition. Sevilla’s centre back pairing of Alfaro and Javi Navarro are renowned for their ‘physical’ nature having broken many a proud striker with crunching tackles and below board professional fouls that tend to hoodwink the most experienced of referees due to sheer practice and experience. I hope for Spurs’ sake it won’t be a Dirty Sanchez Pizjuan night for Dimitar.
Prediction: Spurs to equalise late on, 1-1.