High-flying Tottenham have last 16 in their sights

Tottenham Hotspur FC will look to keep up their dream start to life in the UEFA Champions League when they play host to SV Werder Bremen on Matchday 5.

• Harry Redknapp's side moved above FC Internazionale Milano on goal difference at the Group A summit after beating the defending champions 3-1 on 2 November. That was their third successive home victory in the competition and they will guarantee their progress to the last 16 if they can manage a fourth against Bremen.

• Bremen's hopes took a huge dent with a home defeat by FC Twente in their last match, a result that leaves them three points adrift at the bottom and still seeking their first win. If Twente earn a point at Inter in the group's other fixture, Bremen will need to beat Tottenham to keep alive their prospects of finishing third and stepping into the UEFA Europa League.

Match background
• The clubs shared a 2-2 draw on Matchday 1 and more goals appear likely on the evidence of Tottenham's games so far in the UEFA Champions League. The London club's six matches, qualifying included, have produced 29 goals and at home they have scored 11 in three.

• Spurs are looking to maintain a fine home record against German opposition, with five wins and one draw from six previous matches.

• Tottenham's last visit from a Bundesliga team brought a 1-0 victory against 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup second round. Steffen Iversen scored the goal but Spurs lost the return 2-0.

• Tottenham first faced German opposition in the 1973/74 UEFA Cup when they achieved home wins against 1. FC Köln (3-0) and VfB Leipzig (2-0) in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively to make the final.

• The Premier League club suffered their heaviest European defeat when going down 8-0 at Köln in the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 1995.

• Bremen have only faced English opposition twice before – and both times during coach Thomas Schaaf's reign. Torsten Frings and Claudio Pizarro are the only survivors of the team that lost home (2-4) and away (0-2) to Tottenham's neighbours Arsenal FC in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

• Schaaf's team lost 2-0 at Chelsea FC on their second visit to London in the 2006/07 group stage. They eventually finished third in the group behind Chelsea and FC Barcelona.

• Away from home in this season's competition the Bundesliga side have lost two games – including their qualifier at UC Sampdoria – and drawn one, 1-1 at Twente on Matchday 3.

Team ties
• Pizarro spent 2007/08 in England with Chelsea but scored only two league goals. He played against Tottenham in Chelsea's 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge in January 2008, lasting 58 minutes before making way for Nicolas Anelka.

• Rafael van der Vaart was in the Netherlands team that beat Petri Pasanen's Finland in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier in September.

• This fixture also brings together several players who met during the summer's FIFA World Cup. Bremen's Daniel Jensen featured in Denmark's 2-1 win against a Cameroon side that included Benoît Assou-Ekotto and Sébastien Bassong, a result that eliminated the west Africans. Per Mertesacker was in the Germany team that ran out 4-1 winners in the last 16 against an England team featuring Jermain Defoe.

• Tottenham trio Vedran Ćorluka, Niko Kranjčar and Luka Modrić helped Croatia beat Germany 2-1 at UEFA EURO 2008. Bremen's Mertesacker, Frings and Clemens Fritz were on the losing side. The Bundesliga club's Austria defender Sebastian Prödl also lost to Croatia in the same tournament, a game in which Modrić scored the only goal.

• Modrić scored a penalty in the second leg but finished on the losing side when NK Dinamo Zagreb lost home and away to Bremen in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round in 2007/08.

• William Gallas and Mikaël Silvestre were team-mates at Arsenal from 2008 to 2010 and also played together with France.