In some ways, last week’s first leg was about everything that could have been asked for from a struggling Tottenham Hotspur side. While a single goal on 0.9 xG may not look like an offensive outburst, there were plenty of moments of progressive, decisive attacking that could have led to much more on the score sheet.
However, Thursday’s critical second leg begins at 1-1. Eintracht Frankfurt took advantage of — surprise — a stupid Spurs mistake, and the sides are even heading into a hostile environment that will certainly favor the home team. This is more or less a coin flip in terms of who will end up advancing, which might not be the worst position for Ange Postecoglou after everything this season has suffered. A defeat in Germany is probably the end of the road for him, though.
Quarterfinals (2nd Leg): Eintracht Frankfurt (1) vs. Tottenham Hotspur (1)
Date: Thursday, April 17
Time: 3:00 pm ET, 8:00 pm UK
Location: Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt, Germany
TV: Paramount+ (USA), TNT Sports 3 (UK)
Sunday’s disaster at Wolves was nothing new for this squad in domestic play, but for the most part, cup performances have been much better. The first leg does inspire some confidence, and last round’s comeback against AZ gives some hope for a good effort here as well, though that was against a far lesser opponent and at home, of course.
Frankfurt’s goal last week was a quintessential blunder during the Postecoglou era, with an individual mistake compounded by lackluster defensive efforts. Tottenham is simply not good enough to give away these sorts of freebies, yet that continues to be the theme. Turnovers are deadly against an opponent that wants to be aggressive on the break, and more mistakes like this might be too much on the road.
Hopefully another start by the Micky van de Ven-Cristian Romero partnership will provide some additional coverage should those errors continue, but holding this Frankfurt side to just one goal again over 90 minutes is not going to be straightforward. Credit to the defense for limiting the damage last week; an even better effort is needed on Thursday.
A fateful four minutes
Often in sports, the only way to fully evaluate something is with the benefit of hindsight. Regardless of how this tie concludes, supporters will very likely look back at a wild four-minute stretch early in the second half that was somehow unable to break the deadlock in North London. The official website describes it best:
If Spurs are eliminated — especially by a narrow result — it will be hard to forget this sequence of events. The attack has been far from clinical all season, even with a healthy number of goals (third-most in the league). With a leaky defense and inconsistent midfield, capitalizing on these opportunities is imperative, but in the first leg, the home side could only muster a single tally.
And yet. Should Tottenham come out firing in Germany, continuing on last week’s aggression and actually converting on these sorts of chances, then this hectic sequence will be seen as an encouragement, a sign that the team is moving in the right direction and was just getting a little unlucky. It should not take long to figure out if that was the case or not. Hopefully for the sake of history, this series of events was a foreshadowing of incoming production, not a future source of regret.