One of the voices of European football on talkSPORT and Sky Sports, well known for The Football Ramble podcast, an author and writer for The Guardian - and a regular contributor here at Spurs for almost 10 years - Andy Brassell gives us a short, sharp view of our opposition ahead of every UEFA Europa League match this season.
After the league phase and beating AZ Alkmaar in the Round of 16, we now face Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt over two legs in the quarter-finals, with the first leg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday evening (8pm UK). The second leg follows in Germany on Thursday week (17 April, 8pm UK).
Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)
Manager - Dino Toppmöller
Domestic form - 3rd in Germany's Bundesliga Eredivisie, two points ahead of Mainz in UCL qualification, but 14 points adrift of Bayer Leverkusen in 2nd, and they've lost 4 of their last 6
Europa League form - 5th in the league phase (W5 D1 L2) - beat Ajax 6-2 on aggregate in Round of 16
Andy Brassell...
"There are two ways to look at Eintracht Frankfurt at the moment. Firstly, it's that they've lost four of their last six in the Bundesliga, which is obviously a bit shaky, although we know things have changed since Omar Marmoush moved to Manchester City in January. They weren't good at the weekend, either. They went to Werder Bremen, had loads of the ball (63% possession) but no shots on target and lost 2-0. However, in the mini run before that, they won three in a row, including beating Ajax in the Europa League (6-2 on aggregate) and the penultimate Bundesliga game they had against Stuttgart, they won 1-0 and that all-but ended Stuttgart's European hopes, Stuttgart one of their potential competitors, and they were really good that day. What we can take from that is they are still in the top three, but quite vulnerable in terms of being caught by the likes of RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, big teams who haven't had the best of years. As I said, there is no doubt things have changed since Marmoush's departure. Hugo Ekitike has actually led the line quite well, he's not just a goalscorer, but a scorer of big goals, and a player who is technically very good. I'll be surprised if he didn't play in the Premier League at some point. Traditionally, if you look back at Eintracht Frankfurt's big seasons, fighting on all fronts, they've struggled to finish off those seasons, with drop offs of form in the Bundesliga, which would worry me in terms of them trying to nail down that place in the top four, even more so in a season where a couple of the bigger teams have struggled somewhat. This is another potential route to next season's Champions League. Overall, I think Spurs need a lead out of this first leg, because the atmosphere in Frankfurt - as Spurs fans will know from 2022 - is absolutely immense, particularly on European nights. However, they are so, so unpredictable at the moment."