Tottenham Should Expect to Qualify from Group

Today's Champions League Draw ends a six year absence from the competition between Europe's top clubs.  Spurs draw today avoided the biggest names in football, and with "home" games to be played at the 90,000 seater Wembley Stadium, this is as good a group as Spurs could have contemplated. 

CSKA Moscow

Tottenham Hotspur

Bayer Leverkusen

AS Monaco

These are still not push over teams but it does avoid the big guns of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc.   If Mauricio Pochettino has his best team fully available Spurs do have the talent to finish in one of the two top places in the group.   A long trip to Moscow will be a concern and away to technically sound German team and a creative French team will provide a firm challenge, so the key here is how Spurs equip themselves to the Wembley pitch.

Arsenal, when their new ground was being built did not enjoy playing their Champions League games at Wembley.   For Spurs the Wembley pitch is bigger in area than the home pitch at White Hart Lane, which is far more tight and compact.  There is also the value for opposition players to experience the Wembley atmosphere, and such is the history of Wembley Stadium, this actually adds an extra level of meaning for European teams.

No matter how the Wembley ground serves to inspire the opposition, those games do need the core of the Spurs team that played so well in the league last year as a common core.  Personally for me, having emigrated away from England, i would have look forward to the Wembley fixtures because my home in England used to so close - just one short bus trip away. Looking forward to these group games, as Spurs join the Big Boys of Europe this year.

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