Football Bet of the Day: Spurs to storm to first-leg lead

“Spurs were excellent against Manchester City at the weekend, and even with a number of personnel changes, they should still be too strong for a Pacos de Ferreira that has lost ten of its last 11 games against Portugal’s big three of Benfica, Sporting and Porto.”

Back Tottenham -0.5 & -1.0 on the Asian Handicap at 2.01/1

Spurs can carve out advantage

Pacos de Ferreira v Tottenham
Thursday 19 August, 19:30
Live on BT Sport 2

We got the Danish dynamite we needed last night, as Lyngby’s eye-catching 4-2 win over Fremad Amager gave us our first winner of the week on the Sportsbook’s Bet Builder.

We’ll have our first look at the new UEFA Europa Conference League tonight, because Tottenham are making the trip to Portugal to face Pacos de Ferreira in the first leg of their playoff tie. No-one gets automatic entry into the group stage, so these two have to do it the hard way.

New Spurs boss Nuno could barely have made a better start to life in North London. His side’s heroic 1-0 win over Premier League champions Manchester City felt deserved, and it was the product of a true team performance. With star striker Harry Kane still absent for opaque reasons, Heung-Min Son stepped up to the plate by bagging the winner, and he was backed up by a slew of outstanding displays. 20-year-old Oliver Skipp excelled in midfield, Dele Alli ran himself ragged, Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier were men transformed in central defence, and former academy defender Japhet Tanganga was probably still tackling people in his dreams after his head hit the pillow.

Nuno will doubtless shuffle his pack as he returns to his native Portugal, and there is talk of full debuts for summer signings Bryan Gil and Cristian Romero. One man who won’t be involved is Manchester City target Kane, who has once again failed to travel with the squad.

Pacos de Ferreira deserve respect, as they finished fifth in the Primeira Liga last term and have fully earned their place in this competition. However, they were shredded 3-0 on the counterattack at Boavista at the weekend, and even though they were effectively through already in the previous round having beaten Larne 4-0 at the Estadio da Capital do Movel, they still lost the reverse match 1-0 against fairly limited opponents.

If we look at Pacos de Ferreira’s home results against the “big three” in Portugal since the start of 2020, we see that they have lost four of their five games against Sporting, Benfica and Porto. If you include away games, it’s even worse, with ten defeats out of 11.

I think even a much-changed Tottenham will be too strong here for Pacos de Ferreira, so I’ll back the visitors -0.5 & -1.0 on the Asian Handicap at 2.01/1. A one-goal win brings us a half-win, whereas a bigger victory gives us a victory at evens. If you’d prefer to use the Sportsbook’s Bet Builder, you can back Tottenham/Under 4.5 Goals at 1.910/11.