Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany) (Home) 10.04.2025

Many Spurs fans were disappointed to see Destiny Udogie included instead of Djed Spence at left back, but Micky van de Ven returned to the starting line-up to partner Cristian Romero in central defence.

Five minutes into the match, Maddison was dispossessed in the middle of the Frankfurt half by Skhiri and he spread the ball left to Ekitike.  Running the ball forward, he came inside and placed a low shot wide of Vicario’s dive and into the left bottom corner of the Spurs goal.  It was a well-placed effort by a player who is bang in form, but the defence should really have closed ranks and got in his way once he came in off the left.

Spurs responded with Porro booming a ball diagonally from right to left, where Son did brilliantly to take the ball in his stride and he kept it in, with his cross only finding Santos.  Maddison caught a couple of Frankfurt players late with tackles and was lucky to escape without a card when he was in the referee’s ear after he had been fouled but didn’t get a free-kick.

Dom did well to take down a clearance from Destiny in the centre-circle and then run away from three orange shirts, then he almost got on the end of Udogie’s low ball in to the near post after Son had freed  him down the left.  Maddison was then thwarted from getting on the end of Solanke’s low ball across the six yard box by Tuta, but the ball came back to Dom, who chipped towards the far post, where a defender did well to head over as Johnson closed in.  A free-kick was given to Frankfurt for some reason that prevented Spurs even getting a corner.

A 12 move pass starting on the right in the Frankfurt half with a throw-in, working it back through our back four and then out left to Son, whose ball over the defence found Solanke’s run in the box, where he turned it back inside to Maddison.  He drifted past Skhiri and played a low ball in to the near post, where Pedro Porro let it run past his right leg and as the ball went behind him, dragged his left heel onto the ball to send it into the net.  It was an instinctive finish and one that caught Frankfurt cold.  The goal also silenced the orchestrated chanting from the away support, who were geed up by Larsson when the ball went out for the throw just before Tottenham scored.

Destiny cut between two Frankfurt defenders and was brought down for a free-kick, which Maddison and Son stood over and discussed what they would do with it, but when it was touched short to Sonny, he got it all wrong and sent the ball high into the Paxton Road end.

The last kick of the half was a weak, low shot by Ekitike straight at Vicario when Frankfurt had a four on two attack and they should have made more of it.

At the start of the second half, Spurs went forward from the kick-off, with Lucas Bergvall making another forward run to add to those he made during the first period.  With a higher and more determined press, it was paying off with Porro putting a ball in that was straight into the keeper’s arms and then, after Micky picking off the ball, Destiny nut-megged Kristensen to whip in a cross that went through the goalmouth.

About the time that Frankfurt scored in the first half had elapsed in the second, when they had a chance to re-take the lead.  Ekitike spread the ball to the right and Gotze played the ball inside to Skhiri, just outside the box, from where he slipped a pass straight into the Spurs box for Bahoya.  Looking odds on to shoot, he decided to try to square the ball for Ekitike, but it was cut out by Bergvall and Romero held off Kristensen to win a goal-kick.  The lenient referee let Koch get away with an attempted strangulation of Solanke in front of the East Stand, as the Spurs man beat him to the ball.  The nerves might have been getting to the visitors, as Santos tried to pass the ball out  to the right back, but could only hit Son, who was five yards away but the ball bounced off him rather than in front of him and there wasn’t an opportunity to make much from it.

In the 55th minute, after a long string of passes the ball was played infield from the left to Lucas Begvall, who turned inside two Frankfurt players  taking the ball to the right, striding forward to 20 yards out where he hit a shot that beat the keeper, only to see it bounce out off the angle of the goal.  It came to Destiny, who tried to play it back into the middle, but only found Santos.  It was a great move by the young Swede to make space for himself and so unlucky not to find the net.  He was involved again in a move down the right that produced a cross into the box for Solanke from Porro and Dom fed the ball left after holding off Koch for Son to take a touch and try to bend a shot into the left of Santos’ goal, but the Brazilian goalie did well to dive and push it wide at full stretch.  From the corner, Porro played it in and Bentancur was highest in the air to put a header against the bar on its way over.  The pressure was building on the Frankfurt goal, but it just wasn’t going for Tottenham. And that was the case a minute later when James Maddison was inside the box and did a Cruyff turn to send Theate sliding to the floor, only to see his low shot shovelled out by the keeper.

There was still a threat from the visiting side and when Bahoya looked to be away in the right hand channel, Micky raced back to produce a fine, clean tackle to win the ball off him.  It looked as though Tottenham might be in trouble again, when Kristensen took the ball away from Son, but for some reason Bahoya slid into the Spurs skipper and earned a booking for his unnecessary foul.  The referee failed to give a free-kick when he was tackled from  behind in midfield, allowing Frankfurt to break and a cross from the left was knocked back in to Bahoya, who managed to scoop a shot over the top from six yards out.

Another strong run by Udogie was brought to an abrupt halt by Kristensen’s tackle, which didn’t seem to make much contact (compared to some the ref had let go), but he also got a yellow card for it.  The free-kick was glanced beyond the far post by a Frankfurt head for a corner which Porro put onto Bentancur’s head once more, but this one went straight into the keeper’s chest.

The last 10 minutes were to be played without Son, Maddison and Udogie as Tel, Sarr and Spence all came on for Tottenham.  Immediately, a move that replicated one of Brennan Johnson’s goal in the previous match at home to South Coast Big Club was created by Spence’s pull back from the left wing but Brennan got underneath his shot and sent it into Row JJ of the South Stand.

Solanke got thrown to the ground again by Koch, who must have something on the referee, as he was not shown a yellow card for the rag-dolling of  our centre-forward.  Tel then flashed another ball into the box, which Theate slashed at and off for a corner, but when it wasn’t given, Mathys picked up a yellow card for his protest.  Seems like that is the important thing in the ref’s mind rather than players committing dangerous fouls.

There were three minutes left when Richarlison was introduced in place of Dom Solanke and as the match went into added time, a free-kick on the left picked out Bentacur at the far post to head it back across goal and Micky raced in to duck to head the ball down, with it bouncing up and the keeper pushing it over the bar.  It was probably going over anyway, but it was another good chance.

Bergvall and Bentancur played very well, with both making the ball move well through the midfield and Dom ran tirelessly up front, with the defence doing well after conceding so early.  The level of performance was much higher than we have seen lately and we will hope that the same can be done on Thursday in Germany to give us a good opportunity to progress to the semi-final.

• This was Tottenham’s 19th consecutive unbeaten game at home in the Europa League.