Its now two weeks since that strange night at The Britannia Stadium which saw two sendings off, a boot flying towards the linesman and Stoke City scoring three goals. But now its time for it to all happen again, this time though Stoke have to travel to the other side of Europe and beyond (considering Israel isn't geographically considered part of Europe).
Unfortunately for Stoke both Ziv of Tel Aviv and Cameron Jerome of Stoke are suspended from appearing in this game which leaves us a man short, something we really could do without now. With Crouch and Walters both playing 90 minutes on Monday against Newcastle it would be very surprising to see the same front two on Thursday, the only question is who will play with Kenwyne Jones - I believe we will see a strike force of Jones and Walters because lets face it, Jones and Crouch are far too similar to play together.
A positive for Stoke perhaps is the rumoured return of Danny Higginbotham. This article suggests that the 32 year old may feature on Thursday, thus offering a much needed rest to Marc Wilson who went off with a knock against Newcastle. This game should also see Ryan Shotton play, I am hoping to see him start on the wing where he played in the home leg of this tie. He was very impressive and looked superb on the ball, hopefully this game will be 90 minutes that one of either Pennant or Etherington won't feature in.
Predicted line-up
Sorensen
Wilkinson - Huth - Upson - Higginbotham
Shotton - Palacios - Whitehead - Etherington
Walters - Jones
The only possible change to that team would be the midfield, as defensive as Pulis is away from home I'd be surprised if he played two defensive midfielders in this match. Although, after Whelan's performance on Monday night I really wouldn't object to this midfield, we do have Diao on the bench for any extra assistance needed.
Predicted score
Maccabi Tel Aviv 1 - 1 Stoke City
We aren't great away from home in England, never mind thousands of miles away. And with this being the second of three games this week fatigue is sure to affect some of the players. However from what I saw of our opponents two weeks back, they have no end product whatsoever and don't seem to possess any cutting edge up front. Luckily, I think we have the quality to get a point - you never know, we might even scrape three!
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