The Opta Supercomputer has spoken and revealed how likely Tottenham Hotspur are to make it past the league phase of the Champions League.
UEFA came under fire after making the decision to expand the Champions League from 32 to 36 teams, while scrapping the traditional group stage format. However, there were many positives taken from the new structure of the tournament. One was how there were fewer dead rubber matches at the end of the opening round of the competition.
The league phase certainly took some unexpected twists, as some European giants failed to meet their expectations. Real Madrid finished 11th, Bayern Munich came 12th and Manchester City only made it through on goal difference.
This shows that anything is possible, so Tottenham Hotspur must be careful not to show complacency in their fixtures against lower ranked teams.
On a positive note, PSG finished 15th in the league phase last season and still went on to lift the trophy, defeating Liverpool, Arsenal and Inter who finished first, third and fourth respectively.
Supercomputer predicts Tottenham to narrowly miss out on Champions League play-off bypass
If Tottenham finish in the top eight of the league phase, they will go straight into the last 16 and avoid the play-off round which would add two new fixtures to the calendar.
However, the Opta Supercomputer has predicted Spurs will finish ninth with 12.84 points, meaning an additional round would not be avoided. Should this prediction prove to be correct, Thomas Frank and his team would travel to Belgium to take on Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, the club predicted to finish 24th.
It would be frustrating for Spurs to finish one spot off automatically qualifying for the last 16, but placing ninth out of 36 teams would not be a bad result. The opening stage has got the better of Tottenham before in the 2016/17 season, when Maurico Pochettino’s men struggled to make Wembley Stadium feel like home.
Which fixtures could cause Spurs problems?
Tottenham have a reasonably favourable start to the Champions League, beginning with a home fixture against Villarreal. A trip to Bodo/Glimt comes next in a repeat of last season’s Europa League semi-final, which Spurs won.
However, there are some games which are not easy on paper. PSG away is the obvious pick and Tottenham will have done brilliantly to pick up anything from that match. Borussia Dortmund’s visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will not be easy either.
Away trips to Monaco and Eintracht Frankfurt will also test Tottenham, but they did get the better of the Bundesliga team away from home last season.
Considering Tottenham’s opponents and their start to the new Premier League campaign, there is certainly a chance they will prove the Supercomputer wrong and bypass the play-off round with a top eight finish.
READ MORE – Supercomputer predicts how likely Tottenham are to win the Champions League