harry Kane
Harry Kane Getty

Tottenham Hotspur travel to Florence on Thursday to face Italian club Fiorentina who are going through a purple patch in terms of results.

Where to watch live

Kick-off is set for 8.05pm GMT. Live coverage of the game will be on BT Sport 2 and BT Sport 2 HD.

Overview

Fiorentina have been heavily weakened by the sale of Juan Cuadrado to Chelsea in January but have maintained their good run of form, winning their last three fixtures in all competitions and unbeaten in their last five. The fourth placed team in the Serie A have been boosted by the presence of Mohamed Salah who has arrived on a season long loan from Chelsea as part Cuadrado's transfer to London.

This is the first time that these two teams have met in Europe and Mauricio Pochettino will be looking to extend Tottenham's record of five consecutive wins against Italian clubs to six.

Spurs come into the game on the back of a 3-2 loss against Liverpool and will be desperate to set things straight after losing some serious ground in the race for the top four.

Tottenham had taken the lead on Arsenal following their 2-1 win over arch rivals at White Hart Lane but relinquished the margin at Anfield and have to reignite their campaign in order to close the gap in the race for the European places. Spurs qualified into the knock out stages of the Europa League as runners up, but having finally gained their rhythm and consistency, they will be looking to kickstart the campaign and make some serious inroads in Europe.

What managers say

Vincenzo Montella: "Well, I think we pulled off a bit of coup ourselves in signing Salah," Montella said ahead of their Europa League tie with Tottenham. "Joking aside, it is almost a side of professional pride that someone wanted to pay so much for Cuadrado and that he developed so much as a player. He certainly wasn't at that level when he first arrived to play for us, so I think us, the management, the players are very proud about how far he has been able to go with our help. But we haven't just replaced him with one player, we have replaced him with several players."

Mauricio Pochettino: "Cuadrado is an unbelievable player but Fiorentina have a strong squad with a lot of good players. We have seen a lot of their games recently and they're a very good team. Cuadrado is very good but in the end they have a lot of players who can replace him and do the same job."

Betting odds

  • Fiorentina win: 11/10
  • Draw: 40/17
  • Tottenham win: 5/2

Team news

Fiorentina

Possible XI: Lloris; Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Bentaleb, Mason; Lamela, Dembele, Eriksen; Kane.

Tottenham

Possible XI: Tatarusanu; Richards, Rodriguez, Savic, Alonso; Aquilani, Pizarro, Fernandez; Diamanti, Babacar, Gomez.

Tottenham