da esport bet： Tottenham Hotspur will play RB Leipzig in the Champions League knockout round.
da spicy bet： The first reaction for a number of Spurs fans will surely have been to breathe a sigh of relief.
Spurs had two possible opponents at the end of the draw and while one was Leipzig, the other was Barcelona.
Ledley King, the club’s former captain turned ambassador, spoke in the immediate aftermath and claimed he was “quite confident”.
Yet this feels like a tougher draw than it first appears.
Leipzig have plenty of admirers within the Spurs boardroom as Julian Nagelsmann, the club’s manager, was deemed a potential replacement to Mauricio Pochettino before the Argentine’s sacking, per Football FanCast sources.
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They were unable to extricate him from the German club, given that he only joined them in the summer and is overseeing a title charge.
For context here, Leipzig are seven points clear of the Bayern Munich team that beat Spurs 7-2 in north London. The two sides drew 1-1 when they met in the Bundesliga in September.
Not only that, but Leipzig have Timo Werner up front, a player who is something of a goal machine.
He has scored 18 goals in the German top-flight, and he is currently on a run of scoring in six consecutiv league games. That includes a hat-trick of both goals and assists against Mainz in a thumping 8-0 win.
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This is not a team to be underestimated.
While they may have struggled somewhat to impose themselves on an open group also featuring Lyon, Zenit St Petersburg and Benfica – they drew their last two games and lost to the French club – they have all of the ingredients needed to trouble Spurs.
Their pace up front in Werner will be a worry to the Tottenham defence, while wingers Marcel Sabitzer and Emil Forsberg are legitimate goalscorers, too, netting 19 goals between them this term.
Leipzig also have the second meanest defence in the Bundesliga, second only to Wolfsburg, and will be a tough nut to crack at home; only Schalke have won at the Red Bull Arena domestically this season.
Fans may have breathed a sigh of relief when they avoided Barcelona, but this remains one of the most difficult games Spurs could have faced.
Meanwhile, Spurs boss Jose Mourinho has delivered his verdict on the dramatic win over Wolves.