Nuno Espirito Santo confirms Tottenham XI which beat Man City will not feature in Europa Conference League play-off; Follow Pacos de Ferreira vs Tottenham via our dedicated live blog on the Sky Sports website and app from 6pm on Thursday; kick-off at 7.30pm.
Thursday 19 August 2021 18:56, UK
Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Pacos de Ferreira vs Tottenham in the Europa Conference League play-offs on Thursday (kick-off 7.30pm).
Tottenham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has confirmed none of the players involved in Sunday's Premier League victory over champions Manchester City will start Thursday's clash with Pacos de Ferreira.
Striker Harry Kane was named in Tottenham's 25-man squad for the two-legged play-off, which raised prospects of him travelling to Portugal for Thursday's first leg.
However, he has remained in London and will continue to work on his fitness as he integrates back into the first-team squad.
Spurs will be boosted by the return of winger Ryan Sessegnon, who made his comeback from a hamstring injury with a 45-minute Premier League 2 appearance against Chelsea and has been brought back into the first-team squad.
Harry Kane's Tottenham team-mate Ben Davies said: "He's probably one of the best strikers in the world and we definitely want him as part of our team.
"He is training with us. As far as anything else goes it is out of my hands, but it is definitely having him in the team is better than not.
"It is a blessing when he just gets to chat with us. There has been no real chats about what has been happening."
Follow live updates of Pacos de Ferreira vs Tottenham in the Europa Conference League play-offs via our dedicated live blog on the Sky Sports website and app from 6pm on Thursday; kick-off at 7.30pm.
Spurs are heavy favourites to get past the Portuguese team without their star player and Nuno has revealed none of the players who were involved in the victory over Manchester City will start.
Tottenham are having to qualify for a third-tier European competition just two years after they were in the Champions League final.
But Nuno said: "We take it very seriously this competition. What we consider, this is a good chance for us to have the squad involved, to have young players from the academy also on the bench potentially, and this is how we want to build our squad, to have real competition.
"For our players it's the best thing we can have because we are starting all the competitions. It's a new competition for everybody. I think it's raising a lot of expectations among all of us.
"It's a chance for not so big clubs in European football, that in their own leagues achieve some success, to compete against big clubs like us.
"So I'm looking forward to the competition. And for us as Tottenham, all the games, all the competitions are important. We are taking very seriously our jobs and our tasks."
