Pacos de Ferreira v Tottenham Hotspur prediction, free tip & analysis

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Pacos Ferreira v Tottenham in the Europa Conference League playoff round, first leg on Thursday.

Where to watch

Premier Sports 1, 7.30pm Thursday

Best bet

Under 2.5 goals
1pt 11-10 general

Team news

Pacos Ferreira
Goalkeeper Jordi and defensive midfielder Mohamed Diaby are long-term absentees.

Tottenham
Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier have been left out and Harry Kane has not travelled.

Match preview

Tottenham shrugged aside the ongoing chatter regarding Harry Kane's future by recording an impressive 1-0 success over Manchester City on Sunday but they could be dragged into a close contest by Portuguese outfit Pacos Ferreira in their Europa Conference League clash at the Estadio Capital do Movel.

It has taken a shade over two years for Spurs to regress from Champions League finalists to participants in the lowest tier of European competition but there were plenty of positives to take out of the weekend and, if they are prepared to knuckle down on Thursday nights, there is every chance of ending a trophy drought which stretches back to 2008.

Spurs enter the competition at the playoff round and should fancy their chances against Pacos Ferreira, who finished fifth in last season's Portuguese top flight despite a minus-one goal difference.

Pacos Ferreira are tackling their first European campaign since 2013-14, when they reached the Europa League group stage, and face a significant step up in class after a 4-1 aggregate success over Northern Irish side Larne in the previous round.

They lost 1-0 away to Larne in last Thursday's second leg and followed up with a 3-0 league defeat away to Boavista on Monday to leave them with three points from two games.

Those efforts are poor preparation for one of their toughest matches of the season but manager Jorge Simao will have his players fired up in an effort to keep the tie alive before next week's trip to north London.

Spurs would love to establish a clear advantage but Nuno will be mindful of topping up the minutes of fringe players and keeping key men fresh for Sunday's Premier League trip to Wolves.

He could field a much-changed line-up and it will be hard for whoever he picks to match the performance and intensity levels of the victory over City.

Nuno got his tactics spot on at the weekend by asking players to press at the right times and counter-attack with pace and purpose.

His team must show different qualities against a defensively minded Pacos Ferreira and it could develop into a frustrating night with a low-scoring outcome.

Key stat

Six of Pacos Ferreira's last seven home games have featured less than three goals.

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