It's crunch time for Eintracht Frankfurt in their UEFA Europa League quarter-final tie against English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. bundesliga.com has five reasons the Eagles can fly past their London-based rivals and into the tournament's last four...
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They may have suffered the odd blip here and there this term but, by and large, this has been a record-breaking season for Eintracht. Currently chasing a UEFA Champions League finish in the Bundesliga, Dino Toppmöller's men have been rubbing shoulders with leaders Bayern Munich and defending champions Bayer Leverkusen in the standings for most of the campaign.
Among this season's notable numbers are Frankfurt's seven-game unbeaten sequence to start the calendar year - a first under their current coach - and their 55 league goals scored (the division's third-best tally after 28 games). They've also already won more Bundesliga games this term than they managed in the entire 2023/24 campaign.
Frankfurt's energetic, youthful squad is the envy of Europe right now, and the club's young guns have the numbers to back up their impressive status. From the likes of Germany U21 defenders Nathaniel Brown and Nnamdi Collins to Can Uzun, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, Elye Wahi and star striker Hugo Ekitiké, Frankfurt have effervescent talent in abundance across the park. The collective pace and enthusiasm mark Eintracht out as one of the best teams in Europe in terms of transition play, and Toppmöller will look to use this tactic in particular to try and unsettle Tottenham.
With 29 of their goals scored by 10 players under the age of 23, only Strasbourg of Ligue 1 can claim a better youth strike rate in Europe's top five leagues. Ekitiké ranks among the highest in the Bundesliga in terms of Expected Goals while Uzun - at 19 years and four months old - recently scored his fourth Bundesliga goal to revive memories of a club record set by Walter Bechtold back in 1965/66, the latter becoming the youngest at Eintracht to score six times in just 17 games, aged 18.
Watch: Turkey international Can Uzun is on the rise
Now a veteran of more than 300 Bundesliga appearances and 119 games in European competition, FIFA World Cup winner with Germany Mario Götze is still happily pulling the strings in midfield at the highest level. A scorer of two sublime goals in Eintracht's 4-1 second-leg victory against Ajax in the round of 16, the 32-year-old is showing that his talent and vision are still of the highest quality in the European game.
Having popped up in six positions for Frankfurt so far this season, the former Borussia Dortmund, Bayern and PSV Eindhoven schemer is a lesson in versatility while his eight goal involvements in 31 games across all competitions for Die Adler in 2024/25 mark him out as one to watch for Spurs, who will do well to contain Eintracht's game-changing attacker, a player still very much capable of unlocking any encounter with a moment of individual brilliance.
Watch: Super Mario Götze
Tottenham are two-time winners of the old UEFA Cup, with the Londoners last lifting the trophy in 1984. However, Eintracht's second triumph in this tournament came as recently as 2022, when the Eagles defeated Rangers in a penalty shootout in the Europa League showpiece in Seville. Several of the Frankfurt stars from that epic run are still with the Eintracht set-up, and it is just that tournament experience that can give the Bundesliga side the edge against Spurs this time around.
"For us, for Frankfurt, for the region - for the whole of Germany - I think it's a wonderful thing. It was the most intense experience of our lives for many of us," an elated Kevin Trapp said after that aforementioned win, the Germany international goalkeeper making crucial saves in extra-time and the penalty shootout against the Scottish giants at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.
"I'm just happy we did it and now we just want to celebrate with the fans," an equally thrilled Ansgar Knauff - also still a key member of the current Eintracht crop - added. "We knew that [Trapp] would make a save and the [fans] knew that, too. We did it - it's incredible," the 23-year-old added. Defender Tuta, along with back-up goalkeeper Jens Grahl and former USMNT international Timothy Chandler, are also still at Eintracht having been present in southern Spain for Frankfurt's trophy triumph in 2022.
Watch: Eintracht will be eager to repeat the celebrations that greeted their 2022 UEFA Europa League triumph
A crucial factor when the Europa League bracket was settled saw Eintracht gain home advantage for the second leg of of their quarter-final against Spurs. Deutsche Bank Park also played host to the second leg when Frankfurt swept aside Ajax in the round of 16 to make it four wins and a draw at home for the Eagles in this season's competition so far.
With no defeats in their own backyard and 11 goals scored in the Europa League in 2024/25, Eintracht, who are also one of the best home teams in the Bundesliga this term, will look to take a solid result at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the first leg on 10 April, before driving home the advantage of playing in front of their own passionate fans in the return leg a week later.