Tottenham start their Europa League campaign with a trip to Thessaloniki in Greece to take on PAOK on Thursday night. The Group A clash is an unwelcome distraction for Harry Redknapp and he is likely to field a young side, with the 21/10 on offer for PAOK to win the match looking good value with Stan James.
Spurs start as 6/5 favourites for the match at the Toumba Stadium, with the draw priced 23/10, but it is well worth noting the impressive home record of the Greek side.
PAOK won ten of fifteen fixtures at home last season and have only lost one of their last nine in Europe on home soil. During that run they defeated Spanish giants Villarreal and a young Spurs side could be surprised by the cauldron they enter on Thursday night.
With William Gallas, Michael Dawson, Steven Pienaar, Rafael Van Der Vaart and Aaron Lennon all out injured, and with Brad Friedel rested, there will be plenty of fringe players on show and it could cost Spurs to underestimate PAOK. Spurs could well have more than half an eye on Sunday's Premier League clash with Liverpool and Redknapp has admitted that the Europa League is not his main priority this term.
Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe struck up a nice relationship as they both scored in the 2-0 win over Wolves at the weekend but whether they are risked this week remains to be seen, although StanJames do make Adebayor 4/1 favourite to score first, with Defoe priced 5/1.
With the uncertainty surround the Spurs lineup it could be worth a look at PAOK players for value in the goal scorer odds. Winger Vierinha will be a constant menace and he arrives in form having scored two goals in his last three outings, and he looks very tempting at odds of 9/1 to score first with StanJames.com.
Spurs have been notoriously slow starters of late as they have failed to score in the first half of their past four matches, and with that in mind the double result of a half time draw and full time PAOK win could be worth taking advantage of at 11/2.
However, few will forget Spurs dynamic gung-ho approach to European football in the Champions League last season and we fancy them to at least get on the scoresheet, with both teams to score 5/6 on.
PAOK's last nine home games in Europe have see the opposition score more than once on only one occasion though and we fancy the Greek side are good value to start with a win. The correct score of 2-1 can be backed at odds of 7/1, but Redknapp will be more concerned with Sunday's result against Liverpool in the league.
PAOK v Spurs Form
Check the season's statistics for both PAOK and Spurs plus the odds ahead of Thursday's match.
PAOK v Spurs Tips
Tip #1: PAOK to win the match @ 21/10 with StanJames.com
Tip #2: Vierinha to score first (each-way) @ 9/1 with StanJames.com
Tip #3: Both teams to score @ 5/6 with StanJames.com
Match Betting
21/10 PAOK
23/10 Draw
6/5 Spurs
Correct Score Odds
7/1 PAOK 1-0
14/1 PAOK 2-0
9/1 PAOK 2-1
9/1 Draw 0-0
19/4 Draw 1-1
12/1 Draw 2-2
5/1 Spurs 1-0
8/1 Spurs 2-0
7/1 Spurs 2-1
First Goalscorer Odds
4/1 Emmanuel Adebayor
11/2 Jermain Defoe
6/1 Roman Pavlyuchenko
7/1 Stefanos Athanasiadis
15/2 Gareth Bale
8/1 Giovani
9/1 Dimitrios Salpingidis
9/1 No Goalscorer
9/1 Iago Falque
9/1 Vierinha
9/1 Vladimir Ivic
Odds supplied by StanJames.com, plus over 100 other betting markets on this match and all the week's Europa League matches, including live betting in-running.
Posted: Wednesday, 14th September 2011
Author: Chris James
Tags: europa league, paok, tottenham hotspur, vierinha, stan james,
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