Spurs go down fighting to raise hopes ahead of Forest death-match

This could be a strange match with an empty feeling around it. The priority for Tottenham Hotspur is Premier League survival and Nottingham Forest’s visit on Sunday is of greater importance than this game.

Given the 5-2 deficit after the Kinsky horror show in the first leg, the Europa League champions will need a three-goal winning margin just to take the tie to extra-time.

“Difficult, but not impossible,” was manager Igor Tudor’s assessment of the task in hand. The Croatian remains confident that they will stay up.

Funnily enough, Tottenham have won all four of their home Champions League matches this season with an aggregate score of 10-0. Still, given their form, it feels like this is one for Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.

They cannot quite afford to give up this Champions League round of 16 second leg as a hopeless task, rest all key players and hope for a creditable performance.

The Opta supercomputer gives the home side a marginally better chance of winning tonight than their opponents and there was encouraging fight shown in the 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Sunday. A little momentum and a win at home could go a long way.

Micky van de Ven is back from suspension and called reports that players had switched off or were focusing on next season “the biggest nonsense” yesterday.

They are missing some key players: target-man Richarlison is out with a one-match suspension, Conor Gallagher and Dominic Solanke are injury doubts. Cristian Romero ought to be back in the team, but João Palinha has been ruled out.

Atlético Madrid’s stalwart goalkeeper Jan Oblak is out with a muscular problem, so Juan Musso will deputise.

Kick-off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is at 8pm GMT. Line-ups coming shortly.