Key events
37 min: Spurs not bossing this game, although they have to be wary of Frankfurt on the counter attack. Ekitike is no slouch, and Bahoya is the fastest ever player in the Bundesliga. The teenager set a new Bundesliga speed record last month, 23.09 mph (37.16 km/h).
35 min: This time it’s Maddison who has to endure a barrage of missiles from the home fans. Not cups, but scrunched up tape from the pre-match tifo. Maddison curls a lovely corner to the near post, but Van de Ven misses his header!
34 min: Signs of life from Spurs, who are enjoying their best period of the match in terms of possession and pressing Frankfurt when they lose the ball. Udogie is beginning to enjoy plenty of room on the left and gets forward to win another corner for Spurs.
31 min: Frankfurt strategy offensively seems to be focused on crossing. Five or six times in the last few minutes have they tested Spurs’ backline aerially. So far, Romero and Van de Ven has stood firm.
29 min: Every time Spurs have the ball, there are deafening whistles from the home crowd. I can barely hear myself think.
27 min: Santos denies Tel, who strikes fiercely from distance, not a dissimilar effort to the Ekitike goal in the first leg. Tel curls a shot towards the top corner, but Santos sticks out a left hand and just tips it wide! From the resulting corner, Porro is pelted with cups (I think) from the stands as he prepares to take the set-piece. Frankfurt clear the danger.
25 min: Chaibi again pops up in space, Tottenham’s midfield haven’t got to grips with the Algeria international since coming on, and glances a header at the near post, saved by Vicario.
23 min: Chaibi has shown some excellent energy since coming on, and is willing to run in behind, something Gotze probably wouldn’t be capable of. Chaibi breaks the offside trap and earns a corner for Frankfurt, but Romero heads away.
20 min: Chance for Tel! Tottenham break down the right through Johnson and the forward crosses low towards the penalty spot. Tel is waiting, but completely scuffs his finish, dragging a dreadful shot wide.
18 min: Gotze, clutching his hamstring, is going to have to come off. That’s a real shame, as a neutral, and a huge blow to Frankfurt. He’s the fulcrum through which Frankfurt play. Chaibi comes on.
16 min: Huge chance for Ekitike! From a Frankfurt goal kick, Kaua Santos punts a long ball up field. Not only does it bounce, but it splits the two Spurs centre backs, and Ekitike simply runs onto the ball, through on goal! Just as Ekitike is about to shoot, Van de Ven sprints back and makes a crucial tackle to deny the Frankfurt striker! Eeeeeesh, Van de Ven’s pace really got Spurs out of jail, there!
14 min: Tel, on Tottenham’s left, has his first opportunity to run at Kristensen, but the Frankfurt right back makes an excellent tackle.
12 min: Pleased to see Koch is up and about, and we’re back underway. Should flag that Frankfurt’s right back, Rasmus Kristensen, is another former Leeds player in the home XI tonight.
10 min: Solanke crashes into Koch, catching the former Leeds defender (now Frankfurt’s captain) in the chops. There is going to be a stoppage in play here. That was a heavy blow to the head from Solanke’s shoulder.
9 min: Spurs have survived the first wave of early pressure from Frankfurt and should be given credit for that. It’s a cauldron of noise, and they have come through the first period well, only conceding one chance: that Gotze shot.
7 min: “Having been a Spurs supporter since 2010, I remember once saying around our Champions League run in 2019 that I wouldn’t count the Europa League as a legit trophy,” emails Owen Dodd. “Oh how far we’ve come (fallen). Hoping for a decisive win today. And I’m not big on Tel either to add to your point, hasn’t really shown enough in his time here for me.”
5 min: From a Frankfurt corner, Gotze finds a pocket of space on the edge and pings a shot straight down the throat of Vicario. That would have troubled the Spurs keeper if it had been a few yards either side.
4 min: I cannot impress just how raucous the atmosphere is in Frankfurt. The home fans are absolutely having it. Every time Eintracht win possession or a tackle, the place just erupts.
2 min: Tottenham haven’t conceded in the first two minutes, which is more than they managed at the weekend against Wolves. Bahoya does threaten in behind and hits the deck as home fans scream for a foul, but the Italian referee waves play on.
Peeeeeeeep!
We’re underway in Germany!
The teams are out! The stadium is absolutely bouncing. Frankfurt in their all-white home shirt. Tottenham are in their slime green away kit.
It’s over eight years since we wrote this 2017 piece.
It’s amazing to see Gotze, Frankfurt’s midfield creator tonight, playing such an important part in a European quarter-final in 2025, over a decade on from his World Cup final-winning goal.
Five minutes until kick-off. Frankfurt fans are unfurling a huge tifo as the teams prepare to come out. I’ll get a pic of that on the blog as soon as I can.
I went to Frankfurt’s stadium at the Euros to watch England against Denmark and it’s a brilliant arena (although that might have been because the Danish supporters were so loud). Beers in the stands, too.
Eintracht Frankfurt have some great nicknames: they are known as the Eagles, but also ‘Moody Diva’ (due to the often mixed nature of their results down the years) and my personal favourite, Schlappekicker (the Slipper Kickers), after J. & C. A. Schneider, a local manufacturer of shoes and especially slippers (called Schlappe in the regional Hessian dialect), who was a major financial backer of the club in the 1920s.
The big miss for Spurs is captain Son Heung-min, who is sidelined. The South Korean hasn’t travelled to Germany after sustaining a foot injury.
Tottenham fans, what’s the verdict on Son’s replacement in Mathys Tel? There are reports that Spurs want to keep the Frenchman permanently – Bayern’s asking price is around £50m. I haven’t watched him week-in, week-out but he hasn’t massively impressed from afar. And I didn’t think much about his decision to deny Brennan Johnson a hat-trick the other day against Southampton! Tel took an injury-time penalty with Johnson asking for the ball. He scored in fairness but Tel has just three goals in 25 games this season.
The teams!
Eintracht Frankfurt (4-2-3-1): Kaua Santos, Kristensen, Kock, Tuta, Theate, Skhiri, Larsson, Bahoya, Gotze, Brown, Ekitike.
Subs: Grahl, Siljevic, Amenda, Chaibi, Wahi, Dahoud, Can Uzun, Chandler, Nkounkou, Batshuayi, Collins, Knauff.
Tottenham (4-3-3): Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Tel.
Subs: Austin, Whiteman, Danso, Bissouma, Richarlison, Gray, Kulusevski, Spence, Odobert, Sarr, Davies, Moore.
The Europa League has definitely been enhanced with the carrot of Champions League qualification, first introduced in 2014-15. The only thing is that, in certain cases, the glory of winning a European trophy sometimes feels a little overshadowed by that same carrot.
For Manchester United, for example, who have a proud history of winning the European Cup/Champions League, adding another Europa League probably doesn’t mean a great deal to the trophy cabinet/board/fans, despite all the noise about creating winning habits, etc. Champions League qualification is invaluable, though, especially for a club that has so publicly pleaded poverty and cut costs. United are in action tonight in their own quarter-final, remember, against Lyon. You can follow along with Scott Murray here.
Tottenham are a different beast. They are not at Newcastle levels of silverware droughts but winning the Europa League would be their biggest scalp in at least 34 years (1991 FA Cup) and perhaps back to the Uefa Cup triumph of 1984. I perhaps did Spurs a disservice in the preamble – this competition means more than just Champions League qualification to Tottenham – although that is a huge bonus.
This is what Postecoglou had to say in the lead up to tonight’s match:
Because I don’t define my career and me as a person by what people think about me. I never have. Never will. If you don’t think I’m a good coach today, you won’t think I’m a good coach tomorrow, even if we win. One game ain’t going to make a difference to that. You either think I’m capable of doing the job now or you don’t.
That’s where I sit with these things. If people think that us winning tomorrow all of a sudden makes me a better manager than what I am today or us losing tomorrow somehow makes me a worse manager, I guess that’s their burden, not mine. I don’t think that way and I don’t think most people think that way. Or I’d like to think they don’t, in terms of their own sort of self-esteem and who they are as people. I couldn’t care less.
Preamble
Rarely has a quarter-final been so decisive for a team’s season, or a manager’s future. If Tottenham lose this game, and exit the Europa League, then their season is definitely over and it will almost certainly spell the end of Ange Postecoglou’s tenure. Spurs are 15th in the Premier League, and while they are not mathematically safe from relegation, there is nothing left to play for domestically, apart from pride. Managers in N17 have been booted out with a much better record than that.
But win? Tottenham will be just three games from silverware and the promise of the Champions League. And should they qualify for Europe’s elite competition next season – with all the riches and prestige that that entails – then the season, and Ange’s job, will be saved. In a footballing world full of permutations and and and is a thrill (for the neutral, at least) for things to be so binary.
Things are a little rosier for Frankfurt, and not only because they survived the Tottenham onslaught last week to escape the first leg with a 1-1 draw. Now, with the second leg at home, the German side are probably favourites to progress to the last four. This is a club with serious pedigree – the Eagles won the Europa League in 2022 under Oliver Glasner (beating Rangers on penalties in the final) and are currently third in the Bundesliga, well on course to qualify for the Champions League. Tottenham might shout about how ‘the game is about glory’ (and not ‘meeting PSR requirements by qualifying for the Champions League’) but for Frankfurt, the Europa League really is just about winning a major trophy.
Spurs should be thankful that Omar Marmoush made the January switch to Manchester City but in Hugo Ekitike, Eintracht have another of the most exciting young forwards in Europe. Signed from PSG in 2024, in effect replacing Randal Kolo Muani who had gone the other way a year previous. From André Silva, Sébastien Haller, Kolo Muani, Luka Jovic, Frankfurt certainly know how to pick a striker, and Ekitike is the latest off the wagon. With 21 goals in all competitions this season, he’s very good in front of goal, and very nervous when petting the club’s mascot, Attila the eagle.
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It’s the eagles against the cockerel. Join me.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
