Tottenham Hotspur vs Marseille Match

Tottenham Hotspur vs Marseille Match Preview

This will be the first ever competitive meeting between Tottenham Hotspur and Marseille, while the Lilywhites have won four of their previous five home matches against French opposition in all European competition, although they lost their most recent such fixture in September 2016 (1-2 v Monaco, UEFA Champions League).

Marseille have registered just one victory in their last 13 matches against English sides in the UEFA Champions League (D2 L10), failing to win each of their last eight such matches (D2 L6), since a 1-0 home win against Chelsea in December 2010.

Marseille have lost 12 matches versus English teams in the UEFA Champions League, twice as many as they’ve lost against any other nation’s sides (Italy – 6).

This will be Tottenham Hotspur’s sixth season in the UEFA Champions League, and first since 2019-20 when they were eliminated by RB Leipzig in the round of 16. The Lilywhites have never previously faced any of their prospective 2022-23 group stage opponents in the UEFA Champions League before (Eintracht Frankfurt, Sporting CP and Marseille).

Tottenham have won 44% of their matches in the UEFA Champions League (20/45), the lowest ratio of any English side with 20+ games played in the competition. In fact, 16 of those 20 wins have been recorded by a non-English manager in charge of the Lilywhites (Mauricio Pochettino x15, José Mourinho x1).

This will be Marseille’s first appearance in the UEFA Champions League since the 2020-21 season. Marseille have lost 14 of their last 15 matches in the competition (W1 – vs Olympiakos in December 2020), failing to score nine times during this run.

Tottenham Hotspur have won just one of their five previous matchday one group stage games (D2 L2), winning 3-1 against Borussia Dortmund in 2017-18. Indeed, since the introduction of the current group stage format in 2003-04, Marseille have lost six of their eight matchday one group stage games (W2), including losing to Arsenal in 2013-14 (1-2 at home).

Tottenham Hotspur will be the fourth side that Antonio Conte has taken charge of in the UEFA Champions League after Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan. The Italian will become the fourth manager to take charge of more than one English club in the competition (Chelsea and Tottenham), after Rafael Benítez (Liverpool and Chelsea), Claudio Ranieri (Chelsea and Leicester), and José Mourinho (Chelsea, Man Utd and Tottenham).

Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane has been directly involved in 23 goals in his 24 appearances in the UEFA Champions League (20 goals, 3 assists). Of all players to score 20+ goals in the UEFA Champions League, only Erling Haaland (64), Mario Gomez (102) and Lionel Messi (103.7) have a better minutes-per-goal ratio than Kane (104.4).

Marseille forward Alexis Sánchez has scored three goals against Tottenham Hotspur in all competitions (Arsenal x2, Man Utd x1), with the Chilean netting all three goals in games played in London (White Hart Lane, Emirates, Wembley).