Tottenham: Europa League has begun and Spurs should pay attention
By Aaron Coe
The Europa League has started, and Tottenham needs to pay close attention.
Even though the 2019-20 version of the UEFA Europa League is still ongoing, the 2020-21 iteration of the competition has begun, and Tottenham Hotspur should pay attention.
While three sides in the Premier League have vested interest in the 2020-21 Europa League, only Tottenham Hotspur should be concerned with what is going on already in the tournament.
Just this week through Saturday, the final preliminary matches in the competition are concluding. For those Tyrian Lannister fans out there, yes, the Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar are part of the preliminary teams, hosting Prishtina from Kosovo.
Getting to Round 2 and Spurs
While the odds of Tottenham meeting the Red Imps or Prishtina are pretty slim, their match represents one of the final eight preliminary qualifiers which feed into the official first round of the tournament. Those eight join 86 others for the initial field of 94. The winners from those 47 matches join Tottenham and 24 other teams as part of the main path to group stage qualifying. Those 72 main path teams join 20 other teams who were eliminated from Champions League qualifying to create the full pool.
The preliminary round ends this weekend and then the first round begins next week and runs from August 25 through the 27th. Then the draw for the second round is the following week of August 31. From there, that is where the Spurs fixture list starts to get tricky.
Tottenham will have a couple of weeks after the draw to prepare for whomever they play, with that second round qualifier falling on Thursday, Sept. 17, just a few days after the season opener against Everton and a few days before the second Premier League match of the season at Southampton.
Tottenham and early fixture congestion
Presuming Tottenham wins that second round qualifier, those 36 winners join 13 waiting teams in the third round of qualifying, along with three more teams that fall out of the Champions League qualifiers. Those 52 teams will already know who they are playing as the third round qualifying draw occurs before the second-round matches are played.
For Spurs, that third round qualifier would be just a week after the second round on Thursday, Sept. 24. Notably, Spurs are also scheduled to play the third round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Both of which are followed by hosting Newcastle at the weekend.
If Tottenham manage to win both third-round affairs – EFL and Europa League – they would be rewarded with a fourth-round Carabao Cup match the following Wednesday, with the play-off qualifier for the Europa League the following day on October 1 and then a trip to Manchester United that weekend. Following that trip to United, there is the first International break of the season – yes those still exist too – and then the grind starts all over again.
If Tottenham wins all the matches they need to, they could conceivably play nine matches over the first 24 days of the season. A real test for the team to be sure, but hopefully one they pass, as growing this side demands competing on multiple fronts and winning on one of them. So, if Spurs are to win silverware this season, the Europa League long road has already begun.