Hoffenheim v Tottenham Hotspur: Europa League – live
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At this moment, when they are wrecked by self-doubt and stink of the foul funk of failure, the footballing fates have handed Spurs the precious gift of encouraging fixtures. Sure, they played the first of those, against an Everton team that had scored one goal in their previous six league games, on Sunday and managed to make their opponents look like the 1970 Brazil side, concede three and lose, but they have a chance to make up for it (kind of) tonight, and another against Leicester this weekend. Their season can still come good (or, at least, better).
Hoffenheim, 15th in the Bundesliga, three points above 16th-placed Heidenheim and the threat of a relegation play-off, have lost six and won just one of their last 10 games in all competitions, that solitary victory coming against 17th-placed Holstein Kiel on Saturday. “I play football because I want to win, and when you don’t win for so long, it really gets you down,” said the defender Kevin Akpoguma. “In the changing room after the game, you could feel that a weight had been lifted. After a win, everything is just nicer. A win always energises you, that’s been noticeable in the past few days too. But we can’t ease off now, we need to keep it up. It’s important that we all develop a hunger for it, so that we have this feeling much more often.”.
