My missus is from that that part of the world. These days, technically she'd be called "Serbian", but she always says "former Yugoslavia" when people ask where she's from. Proper old school. Anyway her Dad passed on a few years back, but he was a big Partizan fan. So I'm hoping for a good match and a narrow Spurs win... obviously I want the three points, but I'm happy for us to build up our goal-difference elsewhere; one of the rare occasions I'm not looking for a demolition of the opposition.
That said, while we should really win this, it won't be an easy game. The stadium isn't exactly a cauldron, but the local fans will make a lot of noise. And this Partizan side aren't half bad... the problem is, their stars are either past their best or still inexperienced. The club's recent business model has been to pump resources into the academy and sell the successes (mostly to Italy and Germany), so they have a lot of decent younger players - safe to say the bulk of the next generation of Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian internationals are in the Partizan academy today. There are some future world-class players in the squad, but we should still be beating a team of journeymen interspersed with a handful of 18 year old future prospects.
Anyway, I don't think we need to bring the big guns to Belgrade when they can stay at home and prepare for Sunday. So I'd play...
------------------------ Vorm
Naughton ----- Fazio ------- Chiriches ----- Rose
------------ Bentaleb ---------- Dembele
Townsend ---------- Paulinho ------------ Lennon
---------------------- Soldado
Bench: Friedel, Veljkovic, Dier, Stambouli, Mason, Ceballos, Kane.
3-2 win for Spurs.