Spurs tackle Real, City host in-form Napoli

MADRID: European champions Real Madrid host Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday with both teams looking to seize control of the group following back-to-back victories to start the competition.

The odds are stacked in favour of the Spaniards who have won three of four meetings with Spurs and are yet to concede a goal against the Premier League side. Real are unbeaten at home in the group stage dating back to 2009, winning 21 of 23 matches since then at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Luka Modric could face his former club, although Gareth Bale is unlikely to be fit for Real. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first La Liga goal of the season with a late winner in Saturday’s 2-1 victory at Getafe. Tottenham striker Harry Kane has netted 15 goals in his last 11 outings for club and country, but Spurs will be without Dele Alli who serves the final game of a three-match ban.

Kane is an admitted follower of Cristiano Ronaldo’s stratospheric stats as he pursues the Portuguese’s status as the best in the world, but for once it is Ronaldo who trails in the race to be the Champions League’s top marksman.

An inspired Kane has transformed Tottenham Hotspur’s European form from last season’s failure to a flying start with five of Spurs’ six goals in victories over Borussia Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia.

The acid test for Kane and his teammates comes at the Santiago Bernabeu where Real Madrid and Ronaldo lie in wait having dismissed Dortmund and APOEL themselves thanks to four goals from the reigning world player of the year.

“For sure it is a chance to measure ourselves. We are facing the best team in the world,” Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino told Spanish radio station COPE this week.

“We are a young team with many internationals, but not so much experience of playing these type of games. It is a fundamental test.”Pochettino has fallen head over heels for Kane, conceding his wife was jealous of his repeated declarations of “love” for the English international.

“He is one of the most in-form strikers in the world for sure. The numbers speak for themselves,” added Pochettino.

The figures are so good they’ve drawn comparisons with the two men that have taken goalscoring to previously unseen levels in the past decade — Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.Despite Spurs’ rise in recent seasons under Pochettino, consistency has been a shortcoming that has so far starved them of silverware.

Manchester City and Napoli are among the prolific teams in Europe’s five major leagues, making Tuesday’s Champions League encounter at the Etihad Stadium a genuinely mouth-watering prospect.

Pep Guardiola’s City average 3.625 goals per league game and their 7-2 rout of Stoke City on Saturday made them the first team to amass 29 goals in the first eight games of an English top-flight season since Everton in 1894.

Prior to their 1-0 win at Roma on Saturday, Napoli had scored at least three goals in each of their first seven league games, their tally of 25 goals in those matches establishing a new Serie A scoring record.

City manager Guardiola spent the close season addressing problems in his defence, but the upshot has been that his team are now able to exert total dominance over their opponents.

Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling have each scored seven goals in all competitions and Leroy Sane six, giving City a multi-faceted menace reminiscent of Guardiola’s great Barcelona and Bayern Munich teams.

Their key player is Belgium international Kevin De Bruyne, whose vision, impeccable technical quality and pinpoint passing make him one of the most dangerous attacking midfielders in Europe.

Guardiola has experimented with a 3-5-2 formation, which lets him pair Aguero and Jesus up front, but his team have played their most devastating football in the 4-3-3 system he used last season.

They have scored 24 goals in their last five league games, larruping Liverpool 5-0, walloping Watford 6-0, crushing Crystal Palace 5-0, stuffing Stoke 7-2 and pulling off a highly impressive 1-0 win at champions Chelsea.

Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri has created one of the deadliest attacks in Europe, with 26 goals scored in eight Serie A games.

“He (Sarri) really is a genius. He sees things others don’t see,” said Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly.

Meanwhile, Liverpool head to Slovenia still looking for their first Champions League group-stage victory away from home since a 1-0 win at Debrecen in November 2009.

Jurgen Klopp’s men are winless in three games in all competitions and have drawn their first two Group E encounters against Sevilla and Spartak Moscow.

The five-time European champions will have to make do without forward Sadio Mane, who is still ruled out with the muscle problem that forced him to miss Saturday’s drab 0-0 draw with Manchester United.

Maribor drew their opening match with Spartak and have a solid European record at home against English teams.