Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany) (Away) 17.04.2025

Travelling to Germany without Heung-Min Son, Ange Postecoglou had to make changes, with Mathys Tel keeping his place in the side from Saturday’s defeat at Wolves, with Micky van de Ven returning in the middle of defence in place of Ben Davies, but returning from injury, Dejan Kulusevski and Kevin Danso were only on the bench, that also included Richarlison after his 15 minute cameo at Molineux.

Spurs kicked off in their green third kit, but it was Frankfurt’s Bahoya who was in a good position in the third minute, but he scuffed his shot straight at Vicario, then in the fifth minute, Gotze’s low shot along the ground lacked power and direction, making Vic’s save straightforward.  Spurs were trying to go longer and hit Solanke early, but it was a tough job up against the physical Koch, although he came off the worst when the two clashed in the centre circle.

16 minutes into the game Gotze looked as though he pulled a hamstring, with the ref stopping the play, so when it got going again their keeper launched a long ball forward that caught out Romero and van de Ven, sending Ekitike through.  Only a well-timed sliding challenge in the box by Micky prevented a shot on goal by the highly rated striker.  Good tracking back by Solanke toed the ball away from Koch after the former Leeds defender had run with it from his own box into the Spurs half and Johnson was put away.  He only had Tel to aim for in the box and pulled a ball back to him, but the swing Mathys took at it didn’t make the right contact and the ball squirted off his foot going sideways.

On for Gotze, substitute Chaibi had a header aimed at Vicario’s near post but the Tottenham keeper was there to gather it falling to his knees.  It was Santos who had to be on his toes when Tel aimed a shot towards the keeper’s top left corner from a couple of yards outside the box to the left of the D and he had to dive up to push it wide.  Frankfurt were slinging in crosses, no doubt having watched how Hoffenheim profited against us by doing the same, but Spurs defended them well.  When Spurs got up to the other end and won a corner, Bergvall was a target for the home fans, throwing tifo debris at him, as they had done to Porro before him.

Spurs were spending some time around the Frankfurt box and Udogie’s shot brought another corner when Maddison wanted it slipped down the left as he was in space.  With the home crowd being reduced to whistling Tottenham’s possession we made ourselves heard from the away allocation, tucked away in the corner behind Vicario’s goal.  Tel’s cross in was unconvincingly punched away by Santos and was fortunate to see a white shirt on the end of it.

In the 38th minute, a straight ball forward from Romero picked out a run by Maddison, who won the ball with his head in the box, but Kaua cleared him out not getting near the ball.  There was nothing given by the ref, when it looked a clear foul.  After players had received treatment, the ref was advised to look at it on the monitor and he came away pointing to the penalty spot and booked the keeper three minutes after the original incident.  The keeper even tried to psyche out Dominic as he waited to take it and Santos dived to his right where he indicated he was going to go, but Solanke stuttered and sent the ball down the middle to give Tottenham the advantage.  Huge joy in amongst the Spurs fans !

Kristensen shunted into the back of Tel and then tried to pull him up, bringing a number of players around him to defend the Spurs loanee.  Meanwhile Maddison had gone down off the ball after his battering by Kaua and Dejan Kukusevski came on to replace him.  The Spurs fans were now making all the noise as six added minutes were indicated by the fourth official.  Johnson was booked when it kicked off on the touchline in front of the benches when Brown took offence to a tackle on him, with one of the coaching staff on the Frankfurt bench getting a red card, as he was on the pitch, Toppmoller was almost on the pitch and Ange was in the Frankfurt technical area as it all got a little heated.

The second half started with the rain having abated temporarily, but the referee was being badly influenced by the crowd, giving Frankfurt two soft free-kicks; the second of which Chaibi curled a foot wide of Vicario’s right hand post.  Ekitike was looking for another award when challenged by Romero but this time the ref didn’t buy it.  Bergvall did well to block Ekitike’s shot as the Frankfurt striker ran across the 18 yard line from the left.

When Kristensen slid in on Udogie, getting nowhere near the ball, he told the referee it wasn’t a foul, but got booked anyway, bringing back memories of his Leeds days when the yellow card made acquaintance with him on a regular basis.  Lucas again did good defensive work by hacking a cross up into the air inside the Spurs penalty area for Vicario to then claim.  Dom then won a high ball against Koch out on the right, Kulusevski and Johnson did well to keep the ball alive in the box to win a corner.  Romero won the header when it came across with the keeper nowhere and the ball flashed just wide of the foot of the goalie’s right-hand post.  Tuta flashed a shot at goal from 20 yards out, but cut across the ball sending it high into the crowd and when another Frankfurt move broke down Kulusevski was free on the right, but only a corner resulted.  This one was cleared, but when it came back in, it dropped for Tel on the left corner of the box and he chopped the ball inside to try and find the opposite top corner, but got it too high.

Destiny played a low ball to the far post but Theate got there just before Brennan could latch onto it, with Rodrigo having a free header from the corner, but he powered it over the crossbar.  When Frankfurt played a ball into the box, Ekitike went for it with Romero and went down, wanting a penalty, although the crowd were appealing for a handball.  As it was, neither was given and Spurs had gone to the other end and won a corner with the ball put out as it was aimed towards Johnson at the far post again before play stopped to attend to Ekitike.

A loose pass gave Spurs possession halfway in the opposition half.  It was played right to Solanke by Johnson and the resulting shot was blocked.  Play moved to the other end quickly when the throw was defended and a low ball to the near post in from the right saw Ekitike try to turn it in, but Vicario blocked it with his legs and then two big headers by Romero and Bergvall won the ball away, but it was knocked to the right and Kristensen drifted a header at goal.  Luckily, it went a foot wide and Spurs rode the storm.

Bentancur got booked for a sliding tackle on Uzun as a pass came out of the Frankfurt box and while play was stopped Mathys Tel was subbed for Pape Matar Sarr.  Sub Wahi had a header from a good ball in. but it was soft and dropped into Vicario’s arms with the possibility that he might have been  offside anyway.  More pressure on the Spurs goal came when the ball was worked down the German left wing as a low ball came back behind everyone to Kristensen and he steered a shot three yards wide, when he should have been hitting the target from ten yards out.  Another move was blocked by  Romero, but straight to Kristensen in a position where he had just missed from and he did it again.  This time he topped the ball and it trickled through to Guglielmo.

As Spurs played the ball out, Dejan was away down the left and came inside to fire a low shot across the keeper, but wide and he was offside anyway.  Kevin Danso replaced Brennan Johnson to make up a back five and add height to the back line.  The game got a little desperate, with Frankfurt putting shots in on goal from anywhere, with Spurs defending doggedly.  A corner picked out Ekitike at the back of the pack and his header drifted wide over Wahi’s head for a goal-kick.

Five added minutes were to be played as Micky played it down the line for Kulusevski, but the ball eventually went to Sarr, who had a shot
blocked.  A ball up to Solanke saw Kaua flatten him too, but this time he got to the ball first, although he stayed down inside his box.  Frankfurt decided to play on and the ball was blocked away by Bergvall to Kulusevski, who played the ball towards the line so the keeper could get treatment but it didn’t go out.  Play restarted with a drop ball nearer the Tottenham box than the Frankfurt one, allowing the home team to throw a ball into the box from a corner and Romero headed it away, going down to the ground when it had gone off for a Tottenham throw. The white shirted players were not happy and Theate got booked for trying to back-chat the referee to get the game re-started.

Romero had to go off, but when he came back on, he flew into a tackle on Skhiri that he was never going to win and was lucky only to get booked.  The free-kick was thrown in with their keeper going up for it and it was won in the air by Danso and then Bergvall only for the ball to go to Skhiri, whose ball to the left was intercepted by Destiny and with the ball going up into the air, Dom won it with his head falling backwards to return it to the Italian near the halfway line.  With Pape running up alongside him as the keeper scrambled back, Udogie did the right thing and took the ball towards the corner when the whistle went to send our section into raptures.

With Ange’s job  on the line according to a lot of media outlets, it was a win that lengthens his time at the club one way or another.  With some articles claiming that the players were starting to doubt his tactics, was this a sign that they still believe and are willing to knuckle down to prove that they can defend.  The mistakes that had crept into the side’s matches were put to one side, as they defended with everything they had to maintain the lead.  It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but it showed that when they put their minds to it, they can close out a narrow win.

With Bodo/Glimt progressing over Lazio on penalties, it sets up an intriguing semi-final with the second leg up in the Arctic Circle in a couple of weeks time.  A couple of performances like this and a trip to Bilbao could be on the cards, although there is a lot that happen between now and then.

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