Tottenham v RB Leipzig: Champions League last 16 – live! | Football

And we’re off! Leipzig get the first leg of this round-of-16 tie underway. A huge roar crackles the north London air. And after 26 seconds, Schick juggles the ball down the middle and sends a decent effort bouncing inches wide of the right-hand post.

The teams are out! A cracking Champions League atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs wear their famous lilywhite, while Leipzig sport their bespoke European away shirt, a cascade of black, red and blue dabs and dashes that wouldn’t look out of place in Claude Monet’s garden. In other shirt news, Harry Kane has presented Hannah and Danny Greaves, granddaughter and son of the absurdly brilliant former Spurs striker Jimmy, with a Spurs top to celebrate the living legend’s 80th birthday tomorrow. On the back: GREAVES 80. If you get a chance to watch the new BT Sport documentary about Greavsie, snatch it with both hands. A marvellous celebration of the greatest English striker of all time. Anyway, we’ll be off in a minute!

Julian ‘Baby Mourinho’ Nagelsmann, who at 32 is only 22 years older than the club he manages, talks to BT Sport. “It is the first time at this stage for Leipzig, so we are all excited. We are a young team, perhaps a bit nervous, but we will try to do our own style. It is a great stadium and it’s a pleasure to be here. It is the same for Tottenham and Leipzig, we have injured players. But I think Ethan Ampadu will do well. This is not a tactical battle between the managers, it is about the players, the performance of the guys. The emotional things are the more important, if you can deal with the pressure.”

If Spurs win this evening, Jose Mourinho will break the all-time record for victories as a manager in the knockout stage of the Champions League. He’s currently tied on 27 wins with Sir Alex Ferguson, Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola. A 28th knockout victory will catapult him to the top of that particular tree, though of course Ancelotti has won the competition three times, as opposed to everyone else’s two. Ancelotti also has two European Cup wins as a player to his name (Pep has one) so his medal haul knocks the other three into a cocked hat.

A pre-match chat with Jose Mourinho. “This is a half-match. Too many matches in the knockout stage of the Champions League are thought of emotionally as one match. But this is only a half-match. So we need to be very intelligent in our approach, knowing what we have and what we don’t have, and be positive with a good feeling. We are going to play against a team that normally play with five at the back, are very consistent and very fast. So I think a very difficult match. But we know what to do. Emotional control. It is not about fighting and running. We need to be clinical with our chances, but also knowing how to manage the game and the tempo. It is February, we are fighting for the top four, we are in the knockouts, and the last 16 of the FA Cup, so it is a big effort from the boys to be here. I think the crowd will be with them.”

Gedson Fernandes makes his Champions League debut for Spurs. His presence allows Giovani Lo Celso to move upfield in the space left by the injured Son Heung-min.

Leipzig’s defensive crisis means a start for Ethan Ampadu, on loan from Chelsea. One-time Everton striker Ademola Lookman is on the bench.

Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Davies, Winks, Fernandes, Lo Celso, Alli, Bergwijn, Lucas Moura.
Subs: Vertonghen, Lamela, Dier, Gazzaniga, Ndombele, Skipp, Tanganga.

RB Leipzig: Gulacsi, Mukiele, Klostermann, Halstenberg, Angelino, Laimer, Ampadu, Sabitzer, Nkunku, Schick, Werner.
Subs: Haidara, Poulsen, Forsberg, Lookman, Wolf, Olmo, Mvogo.

Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey).

Only three teams have ever lifted the European Cup the season after tasting defeat in the final: Milan in 1994, Bayern Munich in 2013 and Liverpool last year. Three in 63 seasons; that’s a one-in-21 hit rate. If history counts for anything, Tottenham Hotspur have their work cut out if they’re to go one better than last season. On behalf of all Spurs fans: bah.

But hold on! Spin it another way, and the feat has been achieved twice in the last seven seasons. It’s far from a pipe dream in the modern game. So on behalf of all Spurs fans: yay!

Mind you, the first knockout hurdle on the road to Istanbul looks a toughie. And not just because Spurs lost 7-2 the last time a German team came to N17, a mere four months ago. Bayern Munich, Tottenham’s tormentors that horrific evening, are currently leading the Bundesliga, but they’re being pursued all the way by tonight’s visitors RB Leipzig. The club might only be celebrating its 11th birthday come May, but this is clearly a team capable of mixing it with the older boys. So you’ll forgive Spurs, 137, if they feel a little trepidation tonight.

It doesn’t help that Spurs will be without their first-choice front line of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. But Leipzig have defensive worries: Dayot Upamecano is suspended while Ibrahima Konate and Willi Orban are out injured. Ethan Ampadu, on loan from Chelsea, may get a start as a result. So it’s swings and roundabouts. Throw in the fact that Leipzig have only won one of their last five in all competitions, while Spurs are three wins on the bounce, and we’ve got ourselves a game. It’s on!

Kick off: 8pm GMT.