Tottenham vs Roma live updates: Europa League predictions, team ...

Claudio Ranieri was his typically smiley self as he faced the British press once again in yesterday's press conference.

"Coming back to play in England is always something special," said the 73-year-old. "We are facing a very good team. In the last 15 games in Europe, they have won 13 times and drawn twice.”

"We know what awaits us but we will play our game without fear and we hope to improve on what we did in Naples."

Claudio Ranieri is taking charge of his first match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this evening.

And as he takes in his surroundings a little later, I'm sure he will be aware that he has a great career record against Spurs.

He faced Tottenham 18 times across his spells with Chelsea, Leicester, Fulham and Watford:

Was this the high point of Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham tenure so far?

It certainly felt like it as the joyous and somewhat surprised away fans congratulated the players and manager on the Etihad pitch.

And, in a bit of optimism for Spurs supporters after the news of Vicario's long-term injury, The Athletic's Jay Harris revealed how they stunned City.

From James Maddison's focus to Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies' centre-half partnership fitting into Postecoglou's plan, read all about it - below.

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How Tottenham stunned Manchester City

As The Athletic's Jay Harris writes, this is potentially the worst injury Tottenham’s squad could have suffered, and it is not an exaggeration to say this will have huge ramifications for their season.

Data analyst Mark Carey and Jay have looked at who Tottenham will turn to now, and what they can do to mitigate the Italian's absence.

Read more below.

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How will Spurs – and Fraser Forster – cope in Guglielmo Vicario’s absence?

First, the bad.

Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, the club's No 1, kept a clean sheet against Manchester City with several fine saves, but admitted after the match that he had played around an hour with a fractured ankle.

He has now undergone surgery which will keep him out for months.

However, boss Ange Postecoglou has said he will not dip into the free agent market to strengthen their goalkeeping department, though he didn't rule out signing a player with a more medium- to long-term view.

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Ange Postecoglou rules out signing free agent to replace Guglielmo Vicario in January

Pleasing and... less-than-pleasing things for Ange Postecoglou to reflect on after that win against Manchester City.

Very shortly, The Athletic will take you through both.

First, let's look back, and it all started so well for Tottenham in the Europa League.

A ten-man, 3-0 win against Qarabag, a 2-1 reverse at Ferencvaros, and a 1-0 victory against AZ Alkmaar saw the north London side plunder nine points from a possible nine in their opening three games.

That run ended in Turkey at the hands of Galatasaray. Yunus Akgun opened the scoring, teenage striker Will Lankshear scored the opener (and was later sent off), and Victor Osimhen profited from really poor defending to score twice.

Though Dominic Solanke reduced the deficit in the second half, Tottenham ended up on the losing side, with disappointing performances from the likes of Radu Dragusin and James Maddison.

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Galatasaray 3-2 Spurs: A mixed night for Lankshear, as Maddison and Dragusin struggle

Get in contact with us using our email: [email protected].

There, you can ask us a burning question you want answered, predict how the game will go, pick your combined XI from the two squads, and much more.

We'll feature the best of your contributions in this blog, so get typing.

We look forward to hearing from you!

All it took for Dejan Kulusevski to become one of the best players in the Premier League was to go back to his roots.

Back in the summer Kulusevski was at a crossroads. He had worked hard in Ange Postecoglou’s first season as Tottenham Hotspur head coach without ever quite playing his best football.

He never seemed a natural fit for what Postecoglou wanted from a winger — someone to play high and wide, stretching the play, even if that meant seeing less of the ball. So Postecoglou started to think of a solution.

What he came up with has resulted in Kulusevski becoming the best player at the club. Here is how.

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How Dejan Kulusevski became Tottenham’s best player

To be fair to Ranieri, it was a pretty tough test first up: away against Napoli, the side currently top of Serie A, and it ended in a 1-0 loss for Roma.

In a close, defensive match, Napoli's Romelu Lukaku scored the only goal in the second half with one of just three shots on target for both sides combined.

The narrow defeat sees Roma lie in 12th, only three points clear of promoted Como in the relegation zone.

A familiar face for Leicester City and Chelsea fans!

It's Claudio Ranieri, the genial 73-year-old who has come out of retirement for his third spell with Roma in the Eternal City.

He is their third manager this season after the sackings of Daniele de Rossi and Ivan Juric.

Ranieri took charge of his first game back at the club on Sunday and lost, so he still on the hunt for a first win.

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Claudio Ranieri comes out of retirement to take over at Roma

The story of Spurs’ 2024-25 season, in fact of Ange Postecoglou’s 16 months as their head coach, has been one of dizzying shifts between joyous optimism and despairing negativity.

This is a team with a bigger gap between their gloriously high ceiling and their painfully low floor than any other in the league in recent years. When Spurs are good, nobody in the country can live with them. When Spurs are bad, it feels as if anyone can beat them.

What makes Tottenham so compelling right now is that they can go from their best to their worst (or vice versa) from one game to the next. Never has this been more pronounced than in the past few weeks.

Read more below

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Spurs must stop these wild swings in mood and form – but this may be the hardest time to do it

Then, after the previous eight fixtures, the Europa League's fifth matchweek concludes with 10 matches, all beginning at 8pm GMT, 3pm EST.

Here they are:

We'll bring you half-time and full-time updates from the other games though, including new Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim's first outing at Old Trafford.

There is a full round of 18 Europa League fixtures to get through today.

That means eight earlier kick-offs, kicking off at 5.45pm GMT, 12.45pm EST. They are:

We'll bring you key updates from those matches.

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Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

The imaginatively named ground in north London. Opened in 2019 after three years of building work, its capacity is 62,850.

And ain't she a beauty. The size and prestige of Europe's best stadiums, while retaining much of the White Hart Lane spirit and atmosphere.

The pints even fill up from the bottom. Lovely place to play (and watch) football.