PSV and Tottenham could be involved in Champions League shootout

Champions League Group B
BT Sport 3, 5.55pm Wednesday

It is only matchday three of the Champions League but Tottenham already face a virtual must-win encounter away to PSV to stay in the hunt for qualification to the knockout stages.

Defeats to Inter and Barcelona have put Spurs on the back foot - along with PSV, who are also pointless - and the need for victory points to a punt on goals in Eindhoven with both sides better going forward than they are defensively.

That is certainly true of hosts PSV, the Eredivisie champions in three of the last four years, and already five points clear of a decent Ajax side this time following a perfect start to the domestic campaign.

A whopping 36 goals have been scored in their nine league wins and there is great excitement regarding Mark van Bommel's fab four with Luuk de Jong and Hirving Lozano already on eight league goals.

Gaston Pereiro has seven, while Steven Bergwijn made his Dutch debut in the recent 3-0 Nations League romp over Germany.

The standard of the Eredivisie has long been knocked but Van Bommel's forward players could quite easily trouble a Tottenham side indebted to goalkeeper Hugo Lloris's match-winning performance in Saturday's 1-0 London derby success at West Ham.

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Lloris, beaten four times by Barcelona on matchday two, will need to be sharp again.

There is no Lionel Messi in the opposition ranks to cause havoc this time but Lozano (aged 23), Pereiro (23) and Bergwijn (21) are all good enough to make the leap to an elite league in the near future, although beanpole De Jong's time has probably passed following failures with Borussia Monchengladbach and Newcastle.

PSV deserve their outsiders tag due to their defence. They conceded 17 shots on target in the defeats to Barca and Inter and centre-backs Daniel Schwaab and Nick Viergever are below the level usually needed for Europe's elite club competition.

Spurs have scored in 48 of their last 49 matches in all competitions and therefore carry a major threat, most obviously through Harry Kane, but Lucas Moura is looking lively on the flank and Erik Lamela has notched five goals in his last seven encounters.

Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembele have returned from injury to add further creativity to midfield and manager Mauricio Pochettino will not need reminding of the importance of collecting six points from the PSV double-header.

The draw was rough on Tottenham, who would have been hoping for something much more comfortable having been second seeds, although this is an opportunity for them to claw back the deficit on the top two.

PSV have not won any of their last ten matches in the Champions League proper and Tottenham cannot afford to slip up.

Recommendation
Over 2.5 goals
2pts 7-10 Betfair

Bet on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news
PSV
Only long-term absentee Ryan Thomas is sidelined for PSV.

Tottenham
Injured trio Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose and Dele Alli have not travelled to Eindhoven.

Key stat
Eleven of Tottenham's last 12 Champions League matches have featured over 2.5 goals.

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