Galatasaray vs Tottenham Hotspur Preview

Tottenham will travel to Turkey this Thursday for their Europa League fixture for the week.

Galatasaray are the hosts of the North London club and they will be looking to climb above their visitors at the top of the Europa League table.

Okan Buruk’s side have enjoyed a good season so far. They come into this fixture on the back of a 2-1 win over rivals Besiktas to steal a further march on their opposition at the top of the Turkish Süper Lig standings.

With nine wins from their opening ten match days in the league (D1), they couldn’t have hoped for a much better start to their domestic campaign. Even in Europe, they have been brilliant, taking two wins from their opening three games (D1), making progression to the European knockout rounds a highly likely possibility.

However, Galatasaray fans could be worried about their side’s chances of continuing that brilliant run in what is their first ever meeting in European competition against Tottenham. That’s because the Turkish outfit have won just one of their last six outings against English opposition (D2, L3). So they will be reliant on their attacking players to deliver again and add further to their joint competition high nine strikes.

Meanwhile, Tottenham will travel to Istanbul in very good spirits after coming from a goal down to beat Aston Villa 4-1 in their last outing. The Premier League side have enjoyed plenty of defensive solidity in the Europa League so far this season.

To this point, the visitors have conceded a joint-low one goal through their opening three league phase outings, all three of which have ended in victory. However, winning just one of their prior three meetings with Turkish outfits (D1, L1) could serve as a warning ahead of kick-off, and with this potentially their first league game phase as an underdog, they won’t be taking this game lightly.