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Spurs target clean sweep against Anji

Tottenham Hotspur FC are on target for a sixth straight UEFA Europa League Group K victory as FC Anji Makachkala come to London on matchday six.

Spurs players in training
Spurs players in training ©Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur FC can complete UEFA Europa League Group K with a sixth straight victory as runners-up FC Anji Makhachkala come to White Hart Lane.

• Spurs are already sure of a home game in the second leg of their round of 32 as Group K winners. Anji will finish as runners-up.

Previous meetings
• Jermain Defoe and Nacer Chadli were on target in the first half as Spurs beat Anji 2-0 on matchday two.

• Tottenham's four games against Russian opponents – all in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League group stage – have ended W2 D1 L1 (W1 D1 L0 in London, W1 D0 L1 in Russia).

• Anji received a crash course in English football last season, exchanging 1-0 home wins with Liverpool FC in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League before being eliminated 1-0 on aggregate by Newcastle United FC in the last 16. Their record against Premier League sides is W1 D1 L3 (W1 D1 L1 at home, W0 D0 L2 in England).

Match background
• Tottenham Hotspur FC and FC Salzburg are the only clubs with 100% records in this season's group stage. Three sides have won all six of their group matches since the advent of the UEFA Europa League: Salzburg (2009/10), FC Zenit (2010/11) and RSC Anderlecht (2011/12).

• This is Tottenham's sixth UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League group stage campaign, and they also competed in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage, meaning that they have competed in one group stage or another for seven of the last eight seasons; their only absence was in 2009/10. They have only once missed out on the knockout stage in those campaigns, in 2011/12.

• Anji made it through the UEFA Europa League group stage at the first attempt under Guus Hiddink last season, losing out to Newcastle in the round of 16.

Team facts
• Tottenham are within two goals of scoring their 350th in UEFA competition; this is their 171st UEFA game.

• Spurs' Jermain Defoe and Trabzonspor AŞ's Olcan Adın are the group stage's top scorers with five goals each. With 22 UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League goals, Defoe is 11th on the all-time leaderboard alongside Dennis Bergkamp, Martin Chivers, Jürgen Klinsmann, Óscar Cardozo and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

• Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is poised to make his 50th UEFA club competition appearance on matchday six.

• Tottenham's American goalkeeper Brad Friedel became the UEFA Europa League's oldest participant with his appearance against Sheriff at White Hart Lane. He displaced another keeper, FC Twente's Sander Boschker, as he took to the field aged 42 years and 173 days – 140 days older than Boschker. He was 42 years and 194 days old when he faced Tromsø IL on matchday five.

• Anji's Ivorian midfielder Abdul Razak has some experience of English football; a Manchester City FC trainee, he also played in the lower leagues for Portsmouth FC, Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Charlton Athletic FC. However, this will be his first encounter with Spurs.

• Tottenham (1972, 1984) are one of five teams in the group stage who have won this trophy before; the others are Valencia CF (2004), Eintracht Frankfurt (1980), PSV Eindhoven (1978) and fellow two-time winners Sevilla FC (2006, 2007).

Coach information
• The only coach in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League group stage to have won the competition in its current incarnation, André Villas-Boas learned his coaching craft under Sir Bobby Robson and José Mourinho. After a first solo venture at A. Académica de Coimbra, he led FC Porto to an extraordinary league, cup and UEFA Europa League treble in 2010/11. He fared less well at Chelsea FC, but regained his footing after joining Tottenham in July 2012.

• Villas-Boas is one of four coaches in the group stage who have had their hands on the trophy before, winning the UEFA Europa League with Porto in 2010/11. The others are new AZ Almaar boss Dick Advocaat (FC Zenit, 2008), PAOK FC's Huub Stevens, who won it as a player (PSV Eindhoven, 1978) and a coach (FC Schalke 04, 1997) and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's Juande Ramos (Sevilla FC, 2006 and 2007).

• A major footballing figure in his native Dagestan, Gadzhi Gadzhiev returned for a fourth spell as Anji coach in the summer of 2013, with the club adopting a new approach following the departure of Dutchman Guus Hiddink. A player for FC Spartak Leningrad, he has coached in Azerbaijan and Japan, and worked as assistant to Anatoliy Byshovets during his spells in charge of the USSR/CIS and Russia, embarking on the first of his adventures with Anji in 1999.

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