Spurs’ Alli, Vertonghen, Rose out for critical Champions League clash at PSV

Any hopes that Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli might be fit for Spurs’ trip to the Netherlands to face PSV Eindhoven have now been dashed. Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed that Dele will again miss out on Wednesday’s match, a must-win for Spurs if they want to progress out of the group stages of the competition.

Pochettino also confirmed in a press conference that left back Danny Rose and center back Jan Vertonghen are also out of contention for Wednesday’s match.

“I think Danny Rose, Dele Alli and Jan Vertonghen still out. Christian Eriksen is fit to be selected and we’ll see tomorrow if he to play from the start of the game or from the bench.”

Dele hasn’t been seen since the EFL Cup win over Watford in Milton Keynes. It’s been a hugely frustrating campaign for him, as he has yet to play in any Champions League fixture this season. It has been nearly a month since we last saw Dele in a match.

The good news is the return of Christian Eriksen. Poch was extremely cautious with Eriksen in Spurs’ win over West Ham at the weekend, putting him on only for the last two minutes of the match, but if Spurs want to increase their odds of getting an away win in the Netherlands, it’s likely that Eriksen will play an important role.

Spurs pretty much have to win on Wednesday to have any chance of escaping their Champions League group after starting the campaign with losses at Inter Milan and home to Barcelona. As it stands, they will need to sweep matches against PSV and the return fixture against Inter Milan, and hope the Italians slip up against Barcelona.