Tottenham Hotspur are guaranteed a vested interest in the World Cup final on Sunday December 18.
The victories for Argentina and Croatia against the Netherlands and Brazil respectively in the quarter-finals in Qatar this week mean Spurs are guaranteed to have a representative in the World Cup final, meaning a player in the final of a fifth international tournament in recent years. As long as they can avoid injury, both Cristian Romero and Ivan Perisic are likely to start in the semi-final on Tuesday night with a place in the final the reward for the victor.
The winner of that semi-final might not be the only Spurs representative there because the club are guaranteed to have a player in the other semi-final as Hugo Lloris comes up against Harry Kane and Eric Dier when France face England in Saturday night's quarter-final with the prize of a match against Morocco in the semis.
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Spurs have had a remarkable record in recent international finals. Lloris brought the World Cup trophy back to Hotspur Way after lifting it as France captain in 2018. Tottenham also had Kane and Dier in the 2021 Euros final as well, while Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero went one better and won the Copa America in the same summer, albeit a few weeks before Romero officially joined the north London club. To finish off the run of finals, in January young Tottenham midfielder Pape Matar Sarr, then on loan at Metz, won the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal.
Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte will no doubt be as proud as the club will be that they will have at least one representative in the World Cup final. It will also present him with one issue though and that is getting the participating player back for club football with Spurs in the Premier League.
Conte has been giving World Cup players roughly around a week and a half off to rest following their exit from the competition in Qatar and has already lost Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur to injuries that will make their return in time for the festive Premier League matches a close run thing, with the latter suspended anyway for Boxing Day's trip to Brentford.
Whichever player appears in the World Cup final on December 18, they will, injury or fatigue aside, naturally become a doubt for that Spurs match six days later unless they decide to come straight back to training at Hotspur Way. If they take the same time off as the others have been afforded then they could return for the home game on New Year's Day against Aston Villa.
So while Conte will be delighted to see his players reaching the pinnacle of the international game he may just have to plan around them when Spurs return to action.
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