Fortune smiled on Tottenham Hostpur in yesterday’s draw for the Champions League play-off rounds with Harry Redknapp’s team paired against Swiss lightweights Young Boys.
Spurs are making their Champions League debut and their first foray into Europe’s top flight competition in half a century after edging Manchester City to finish fourth in last season’s Premier League.
If Redknapp’s team overcome their Swiss rivals they will join Premier League rivals Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in the Champions League group stages, which begin next month.
The last time Spurs played at this level in Europe was when they reached the semi-finals of the 1961-1962 European Cup.
Tottenham’s only previous European meeting with Swiss opposition ended in a 9-1 aggregate win over Grasshopper in the 1973-1974 UEFA Cup.
Young Boys will prove no pushovers, however, as they underlined when beating Turkey’s Fenerbahce in the last round.
Spurs will nevertheless have breathed a collective sigh of relief as they avoided the likes of big guns Sampdoria, fourth in Serie A last season, Werder Bremen, Ajax, or an long trip to Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev.
That trip to Kiev will be undertaken by former European champions Ajax, coached by Spurs’ former boss Martin Jol.
Speaking on Sky Sports News, Tottenham’s club secretary Darren Eales said: “I don’t think there was a perfect draw. All five teams that have got through are obviously quality sides.”
He added of Young Boys: “We saw them play against Fenerbahce — that was a great result for them to win 1-0 in Turkey. So we know it’s going to be a tough game but we’re excited about it and looking forward to hopefully getting into the Champions League group stages.”
In other match-ups Werder Bremen face Sampdoria, French outfit Auxerre were drawn with Zenit-St Petersburg and Sporting Braga, who downed Celtic to get to the play-offs, will play Spaniards Sevilla.
The play-off first legs will be staged on Aug. 17 and Aug. 18, with the return legs held the following week.
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