Tottenham must overcome a one-goal deficit against AC Milan on Wednesday night if they want to keep their Champions League hopes alive.
An early Brahim Diaz goal was all that separated Milan and Spurs in their Champions League Round of 16 first-leg clash last month, sending the Italian side to London with a 1-0 aggregate lead. Spurs must now win on Wednesday if they want to advance to the Champions League quarter-finals, with Antonio Conte set to make his return to the dugout.
Spurs enter the clash on the back of two poor results, losing 1-0 to both Sheffield United and Wolves in the FA Cup and Premier League respectively. Eric Dier will be missing after accumulating too many yellow cards, but Emile-Pierre Hojbjerg will return to the Spurs squad after missing the first-leg through suspension.
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So, can Spurs turn the tie around on Wednesday? Let's take a look.
Spurs vs AC Milan score predicted by simulation
To complete this simulation, we used FIFA 23 and updated the squads with the latest injuries and suspensions.
We predict that Milan could line up in a 3-4-3 formation, with their line-up as follows: Forster; Romero, Lenglet, Davies; Emerson, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Perisic; Richarlison, Kane, Son.
We predict that Milan could line up in a 3-4-2-1 formation, with their line-up as follows: Maignan; Kalulu, Kjaer, Thiaw; Saelemaekers, Bennacer, Tonali, Hernandez; Leao, Krunic; Giroud.
Despite being a goal behind, Spurs rarely had a sight of goal in the first half, and in a really poor showing, they found themselves 3-0 down at the break, leaving it all to do in the second 45. Rafael Leao opened the scoring after nine minutes when he latched onto a long ball down the right, and the forward did well to cut inside and curl past Fraser Forster from 25 yards out.
Just seven minutes later, Olivier Giroud doubled the lead, with the Frenchman flicking Theo Hernandez's cross through the legs of Forster at the near post. Spurs couldn't get a hold of the game, and it was 3-0 in the 44th minute as Leao got his second.
A poor clearance was headed back towards goal by Sandro Tonali, and Leao picked up the pass before quickly firing a shot towards goal and into the net. Pedro Porro, Arnaut Danjuma and Dejan Kulusevski were all introduced in a triple change at halftime, and the latter set up Harry Kane to pull a goal back.
The Swede did well to skip past multiple challenges and thread a pass through to Kane, but the striker was forced away from goal, slowing the attack down. With no options, Kane opted to shoot from a difficult position, and the striker arrowed a fantastic strike across goal and in off the post.
The introduction of Kulusevski tipped the game in Spurs' favour, with the forward creating multiple chances for his side. And, in the 58th minute, Kulusevski and Kane combined once again to make it 3-2 and boost the mood in the Spurs squad.
Similarly to the first goal, Kulusevski cut inside, breezed through the Milan midfield and found Kane with a well-placed pass. The striker let the ball run through and into his path, and a composed finish with the outside of his boot halved the aggregate deficit.
Despite the momentum falling in Spurs' favour, the Lilywhites failed to capitalise, and in the 88th minute, Milan caught Conte's side on the break to make it 4-2. A well-worked passing move was finished with a tap-in from Giroud to make it 5-2 on aggregate and take the game away from Spurs.
FIFA 23 predicted score: Spurs 2-4 AC Milan ( AC Milan win 5-2 on aggregate)
Here are the full-time match stats:
FIFA 23 predicts that Spurs could exit the Champions League on Wednesday night, losing 4-2 in the simulation and 5-2 on aggregate. A slow first half saw Conte's side go three goals down, and despite a spirited second-half performance, it wasn't enough to come back in a poor defensive display.
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