Good afternoon. The UEFA Europa Conference League group stage gets underway this evening, with Spurs facing a trip to Rennes. I’ll bring you build-up and team news followed by live text commentary of the game at the Stade de la Route de Lorient.

These two teams are tipped as the favourites to qualify for the knockout stages, with NS Mura of Slovenia and Vitesse of the Netherlands are the other two clubs in Group F. But clearly the format of the competition means that winning the group has distinct advantages, so a victory here would be a great start for either side.

The format of the competition means that the group winners will go immediately through to the last-16 knockout phase, while the runners-up in each group will face an additional knockout round against one of the eight third-placed teams from the Europa League group stage.

Rennes’ big strength last season was defensively. They conceded just 40 goals in the campaign, a record that only Lille and PSG bettered. And that is not good news for a Spurs side who have struggled to create chances so far under Nuno.

The Ligue 1 outfit have endured a struggling start to the domestic season, winning just one of five. But they played some decent football to finish sixth in the last campaign, finishing outside of the crop of title challengers, but showing enough to suggest they could be a threat to Spurs in Group F.

That certainly sounded like being the intended strategy from Spurs in this new European competition; using it as a squad development competition at first before taking it slightly more seriously in the latter stages. But Rennes are no pushovers, so Nuno has named a relatively strong side, including Harry Kane up top.

Tonight’s match will give Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo a chance to get some good vibes back around the camp, while also rotating his squad and giving some of the squad players a chance.

Tottenham’s season was going so well. But it doesn’t take much for the mood to shift at this stage of a season, and Saturday’s 3-0 capitulation at Crystal Palace was more than enough to remove the glow from three straight wins at the start of the Premier League season.