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Thomas Frank will get his first taste of European football this season after departing Brentford to take on the Tottenham job. His Spurs team have made a strong start to the Premier League campaign with two wins from two and he will be looking for more of the same in the Champions League.
The format of the Champions League has changed since Tottenham's last appearance in the competition but it is exactly the same setup as what they had to contend with in last season's successful Europa League campaign. The Lilywhites will discover their league phase opponents on Thursday evening when the draw takes place at 5pm at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
A total of 36 teams take part in the league phase and those involved will be split into four pots of nine. A team will be selected and then automated software will be used to pair each side with two from each pot to determine their eight fixtures.
When a club is paired with two teams from a pot, one game will be at home and the other will be away. No teams from the same country can be drawn against each other and a club cannot face more than two opponents from the same association.
Ahead of this evening's draw, we have decided to take a look at the best and worst case scenarios for Tottenham when it comes to their league phase fixtures.
Best case scenario
Opponents: Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt, Villarreal, Slavia Prague, Bodo/Glimt, Pafos, Union Saint-Gilloise.
Tottenham already know they can only face six of the nine teams from Pot 1 as Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea are not possibilities as they are from the same association. Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund would be seen as the most favourable ties from Pot 1 as it contains the likes of PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
In Pot 2, a reunion with Eintracht Frankfurt would work well for Tottenham and the same may also apply to Villarreal. Another showdown with Bodo/Glimt would see another Europa League reunion, with Slavia Prague another pick from Pot 3.
In Pot 4, Kairat will be the choice of many but we have gone with Pafos and Union Saint-Gilloise on this occasion with the reasoning for not naming the side from Kazakhstan in the best case scenario explained below.
Worst case scenario
Opponents: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Napoli, Marseille, Galatasaray, Kairat.
Bayern Munich feature in the worst case scenario after Tottenham were humbled 4-0 by the Bundesliga giants in a pre-season friendly earlier this month. Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG are other tough tests but we have gone for Barca as our pick as they have made big strides over the past 12 months and they also have Lamine Yamal in their team.
When it comes to Pot 2, Atletico Madrid are always a tough team to play against and Juventus could also be a bit of an awkward game for the Lilywhites. There could be a couple of tricky games from Pot 3 as an away day at either Napoli or Marseille could be extremely challenging due to the atmosphere inside their respective stadiums.
The same also goes for Galatasaray in Pot 4, although Spurs do know this from their game in Istanbul last November. Finally, we have gone with Kairat as the final team in Pot 4 as it represents a big banana skin for Tottenham, especially if the game is away in Kazakhstan.
That would also not be ideal preparation for their following Premier League fixture due to the time it takes to get there and back.
Champions League league phase schedule
Matchday 1: 16-18 September
Matchday 2: 30 September-1 October
Matchday 3: 21-22 October
Matchday 4: 4-5 November
Matchday 5: 25-26 November
Matchday 6: 9-10 December
Matchday 7: 20-21 January
Matchday 8: 28 January
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