60 seconds on FC Copenhagen | Andy Brassell, European football expert | OneFootball

One of the voices of European football on talkSPORT and Sky Sports, well known for The Football Ramble podcast, an author and writer for The Guardian - and a regular contributor here at Spurs for almost 10 years - Andy Brassell will give his view on our UEFA Champions League opponents as part of our '60 seconds on...' pre-match feature this season.

Next up, it's MD4 and Danish Superliga champions FC Copenhagen at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday evening (8pm UK).

@andybrassell

State of play

Andy: “FC Copenhagen are not in an amazing place at the moment, not just because they've only taken one point from three games in the Champions League so far, but they're just struggling a little. They're sitting in fourth place in the Danish Super League at the moment, just about beat Fredericia, a team that they should be rolling over easily, at the weekend. It's a bit scrappy, and I think if you listened to Jacob Neestrup, the coach, afterwards, he was saying this is how it is at the moment. It's tough, and it's going to be like that for a while because they're missing probably five, six key players, most notably Thomas Delaney, Birger Meling, who are experienced and add a lot to the team in the context of the Champions League. I think the fact that they benched William Clem, for example, and Jordan Larsson at the weekend was probably with this game against Spurs in mind. The squad is really stretched at the moment because of the amount of football and the number of injuries, and missing guys of experience in the Champions League is a lot to deal with.”

Copenhagen ‘redefining themselves’

Andy: “Jacob Neestrup almost created a rod for his own back… when you look at the last time FC Copenhagen were in the Champions League, they got out of their group at the expense of Manchester United and Galatasaray. Galatasaray, I thought, played really well and Copenhagen closed them out really well, a 1-0 win at the Parken (Stadium) on the closing day on MD6 to get through ahead of them. That, and the fact that they've recreated themselves, re-stationed themselves as a sort of hub for Nordic talent - that's how they got Roony Bardghji (now at Barcelona), of course, across from Sweden. They're meant to be this Scandi ‘finishing school’ for the best players in the region. That should leave them well set but, of course, the fact that they have set themselves up quite self-consciously as that, and that they did well in the Champions League, has added pressure. On top of that, you look at Midtjylland, who are doing well at bringing back prime players – they were able to bring back Philip Billing, a Premier League player (Huddersfield, Bournemouth) who won Serie A while on loan at Napoli last season, and then he went straight back to Denmark while he was still in his 20s. So that, and if you look at the youth development of Nordsjælland, that's why they've had to try and redefine themselves in recent years. It's not always easy.”

Good spells in UCL games this season...

Andy: “Of course, they've got experienced players in there to try and bring the younger players along. You look at Clem, you look at Lukas Lerager, you look at Viktor Claesson, Delaney, when fit, obviously he's not at the moment, players like that, they're a team that's expected to win more often than not. Having not been involved in the initial new format of the Champions League, I think they're struggling to adjust to it a little bit. They've had good spells in most of these games. I think they could have beaten Bayer Leverkusen in that 2-2 draw. There were moments when they were well in the game against Borussia Dortmund, and then Dortmund, who are obviously one of the better teams in the Champions League, who score a lot of goals from every angle - they've got 12 in three so far this season - took it away from them (2-4). So, for them, I think it would be a genuine exploit for them to make the top 24 when you look at the injury list at the moment."

‘A great opportunity for Spurs'

Andy: “I think this is a great opportunity for Spurs to really get motoring in this season's Champions League and lay down some sort of marker at home, because Copenhagen are a bit vulnerable at the moment, and the coach, Neestrup himself, admits it.”