Reason to hope
A funny thing happened on the way to the firing
SPURS 1-1 EINTRACHT FRANKFURT
UEFA Europa League Quarterfinals 1st leg
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
April 10, 2025
Spurs (4-3-3): Vicario, Pedro Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie (Spence 79), Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison (Sarr 79), Johnson, Solanke (Richarlison 88), Son (c) (Tel 79).
Unused substitutes: Austin, Whiteman, Davies, Gray, Bissouma, Moore, Odobert.
Eintracht Frankfurt (4-2-3-1): Kaua Santos, Kristensen, Koch (c), Theate, Brown (Nkounkou 90+1), Skhiri, Tuta, Gotz (Can Uzun 90+1), Larsson, Bahoya (Chaibi 70), Ekitike (Wahi 89).
Unused substitutes: Grahl, Siljevic, Amenda, Dahoud, Chandler, Batshuayi, Collins, Fenyo.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak
Scoring: Ekitiké 6', Pedro Porro 26'
Not six minutes into the match, it seemed as if Ange Postecoglou’s fate was sealed.
We’d just given up the kind of goal we’ve seen all-too-often in his tenure: A loss of possession in the middle of the pitch—this time, it was James Maddison dispossessed by Ellyes Skhiri—led quickly to a counter targeting the soft underbelly between our center halves and fullbacks—this time behind Pedro Porro. Skhiri’s surgical pass was just out of reach of the retreating Porro and found the in-form Hugo Ekitiké, who found little resistance from Porro as the striker cut inside and delivered an impressive, low strike through traffic that found its way inside the far post. Cristian Romero was guilty of being caught out, as well—something that’s happened far too often for the elite defender he is.
I found myself wishing I was still on hiatus from Spurs.
But twenty minutes later, Maddison and Porro found redemption as they combined on what could turn out to be our goal of the season.
It began on an inswinger from Son Heung-min that found Don Solanke as the striker made his run behind the Frankfurt line…
Solanke opened a pocket for Madders to run into and fed him…
And Madders drew it back for Porro, who scored a training-ground goal with the back of his left heel.
Suddenly, we were Spurs again.
In the second half, we seemed revitalized altogether and dominated play. We didn’t score but could’ve scored at least four goals. Rodrigo Bentancur put his head on two corners. Sonny had a chance from close range and was denied by a nice save from Kaua Santos. And Brennan Johnson found separation to receive Solanke’s pass into the box, just like he did on Sunday vs. Southampton, but put it over the bar.
UPSTATE SPURS MAN OF THE MATCH
But no chance was more scintillating than LUCAS BERGVALL’s in the 55th minute when he skillfully evaded the press near midfield, ran into the space he’d bought for himself, and delivered a laser striker that ricocheted off the top left corner of the woodwork. I’d previously described the 19-year-old Swede as “pre-majestic,” but I may have to modify that modifier. Lucas was majestic against Frankfurt. The better descriptor may be “pre-elite.” His precocious command of the pitch has me thinking he will emerge as our best player in the next season or two.
SELECTIONS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Ange’s XI raised some eyebrows as he left Djed Spence, one of our POTY candidates, on the bench in favor of Porro and Destiny Udogie. He also went to Brennan Johnson instead of Wilson Odobert after Johnson had just played 90+ on Sunday; facing a team that prefers to sit back and counter, it seemed an awkward fit for Brennan.
It’s hard to evaluate these choices even in hindsight. Udogie played himself into the match, led multiple charges in the second half, and began to look like his “old” self. Spence might have defended Ekitiké more rigorously in the sequence that led to the visitors’ goal, but then Porro delivered our only goal. And I saw some pre-match buzz about an Odobert injury that might have forced Ange’s hand.
Our manager also made a surprising choice in taking off Madders, our most creative midfielder at a time when we were beating Eintracht into passivity, rather than Bentancur, who in my opinion did little aside from his headers. Madders was clearly fuming on the bench, as we’d expect him to. But again, I’m not there pitchside to see what he and Ange’s staff see.
But in that second half, we saw what happens when Ange’s side is playing to its potential. Isn’t it strange how that happened now that we have a near-first choice XI, minus Dejan Kulusevski? It’s almost if that long run of poor form was due to our anomalous injury epidemic.
Regardless, I think Ange and our season have been saved…for at least one more week. We have hope. We’ll fly into Frankfurt next week knowing we can outplay our opponent.
And should we make it through to the semis, it might very well be to face the surprising Bodø/Glimt, who looked quite impressive in taking a 2-0 lead over Lazio this week. And if so, they would be no pushovers for us. Kjetil Knutsen’s side play as if they have a team full of Christian Eriksens in his prime. (Yes, I know he’s Danish, but work with me on this one.) In fact, don’t be surprised if you hear Knutsen linked with us in the near future.
Thursday won’t be easy. Eintracht are very good at home. We’re going to need Barcelona 2018-level support from the away supporters.
But we now have that most invigorating and tantalizing thing: We have hope. And we sit three matches from a European final.
Up the Spurs.
I’d like to send this post out to Shuban. COYS, mate.