Tottenham Europa League draw: Spurs to play Bulgaria's Lokomotiv Plovdiv in second qualifying round

Jose Mourinho's Tottenham reached Europa League qualifying after finishing sixth in the Premier League last term
Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty I
George Flood31 August 2020

Tottenham will take on Bulgaria's Lokomotiv Plovdiv away in the second round of Europa League qualifying.

Spurs - Champions League finalists in 2017/18 - are entering Europe's secondary club competition at such an early stage this season after securing a sixth-place Premier League finish on the final day of the 2019/20 campaign.

They would have qualified automatically for the group stages if Chelsea had won the FA Cup Final, but north London rivals Arsenal's 2-1 victory at Wembley at the beginning of the month condemned them to an even more hectic start to an already busy 2020/21 campaign.

Tottenham were seeded in Group 7 before the second qualifying round draw made on Monday, and knew ahead of time that they would face a trip to either Aris in Greece, Albania's KF Laci or Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

They were eventually paired with the latter and will travel to Lokomotiv Stadium in Bulgaria on Thursday September 17, four days after beginning the new Premier League season at home to Everton.

Jose Mourinho's side are then away at Southampton on September 20.

Plovdiv finished fifth in the Championship round of the Bulgarian top-flight last season and have won three of their first four matches in 2019/20 to sit third, behind only CSKA Sofia and reigning champions Ludogorets Razgrad.

Bruno Akrapovic's side successfully retained the Bulgarian Cup last term and beat FK Iskra Danilovgrad of Montenegro 1-0 in the first Europa League qualifying round on August 27.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all Champions League and Europa League qualifying ties this season before the play-off round will feature only one leg.

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Tottenham are returning to the Europa League for the first time since the 2016/17 season, when elimination from the group stages of the Champions League was followed by a last-32 exit at the hands of Belgian outfit Gent.

They competed in the competition for five consecutive seasons between 2011-16, reaching the quarter-finals in 2012/13.