Predicted Spurs Starting XI To Face Benfica – Sandro At Centre-Back

Tottenham Hotspur are in Portugal for tonight’s Europa League second leg against Benfica looking to overturn a 3-1 deficit. Here’s our predicted starting XI for the game.

Tim Sherwood is facing something of an injury crisis as he confirmed this morning on TottenhamHotspur.com that 10 first team players are unavailable through injury or suspension.

The Spurs coaches problems start from the back as he’ll be without any of his four first choice centre-backs. Jan Vertonghen is suspended having picked up another booking in the first leg, while Younes Kaboul, Michael Dawson and Vlad Chiriches are all injured.

It means Sandro is expected to drop back into defence and will be joined by either full-back Zeki Fryers or youngster Milos Velkovic at the heart of defence. Danny Rose is expected to pass a late fitness test to start at left-back while Kyle Naughton will deputise at right-back with Kyle Walker continuing to miss out with a pelvic injury.

Sherwood also has problems in midfield with Paulinho, Mousa Dembele, Erik Lamela and Etienne Capoue all out through injury so Nabil Bentaleb could be joined by Gylfi Sigurdsson in the centre of the park.

Aaron Lennon is likely to be recalled after not featuring during Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal while Andros Townsend could start on the left side with Christian Eriksen deployed in a more central role. Roberto Soldado is poised to start in attack as Emmanuel Adebayor has been left back in north London to nurse an ankle knock.

Here’s the team Sherwood could go with:

What do you think of our team? What XI would you start? Share your views below.