Can Spurs win a first trophy since 2008? We look ahead to Thursday’s UEFA Europa League game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with our Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt prediction and preview.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt Stats: The Key Insights
The Opta supercomputer gives Tottenham Hotspur a 52.3% chance of winning the first leg of the tie.
Spurs have won both of their previous home games against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Tottenham are third favourites to win the UEFA Europa League according to the supercomputer.
Is it a case of UEFA Europa League glory or bust for Ange Postecoglou? With his Tottenham Hotspur side unlikely to even secure a top-half finish in the Premier League, never mind qualify for Europe, winning this competition is the Australian’s best chance of retaining his job into 2025-26.
The first hurdle to conquer is the visit of Eintracht Frankfurt. With six games to go they sit third in the Bundesliga, so are having a much better domestic season than the team they will face on Thursday evening.
Eintracht are also in red-hot form in this competition. They have lost just two of their last 23 matches in the Europa League (W14 D7), a run that includes lifting the trophy in 2021-22, and they have won seven games this season.
In only one major European campaign have they won more times, winning nine games in 2018-19. It’s an impressive record, but hidden within it are reasons for optimism for Tottenham fans.
The visitors lost two of their away games in the league phase of the Europa League this season. One was something of a dead rubber on the final matchday (2-0 at Roma), but they were also beaten 3-2 at Lyon. Omar Marmoush was one of their scorers that day, but the Egyptian has since left the club for Manchester City.
Manager Dino Toppmöller can still call upon Hugo Ekitiké, though. He has been involved in six goals in 10 Europa League appearances this season (three goals, three assists), scoring and assisting in the second leg of the last-16 tie against Ajax. While he hasn’t scored in any of his five away games in this competition, Ekitiké is Frankfurt’s top Bundesliga scorer on the road now that Marmoush has left.
It’s just as well that the 22-year-old will be available as Toppmöller has several injury issues affecting his plans for this game. Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp and attacking midfielder Can Uzun may be able to return, but up to eight players are doubtful at best.
Tottenham’s injury woes have eased considerably since they were at their worst earlier in the campaign. The main miss will be Dejan Kulusevski, who has three goal contributions in the 2024-25 Europa League, with both of his assists occurring at home. Centre-backs Kevin Danso and Radu Dragusin will also miss the visit of Frankfurt.
Spurs’ most creative player in Europe this season is available, though. Dominic Solanke has been involved in six goals in just 361 minutes of Europa League action this season (two goals, four assists). The only Englishman with more assists in a Europa League campaign is Bukayo Saka in 2019-20 (five), so perhaps Solanke can claim a niche record for his side of north London.
Postecoglou has also shown faith with the younger members of his squad in this competition. That was partly due to rotating the side in the league phase, but their collective numbers make for impressive reading nonetheless.
Players under the age of 21 have been involved in 10 Europa League goals for Spurs this term (six goals, four assists). Similar to Solanke versus Saka, the last side with more was Arsenal in 2020-21. They benefitted from 14 goal contributions from their youngsters.
No matter the age of the players involved, it is the Bundesliga club who have had better European experience of late. This is their third quarter-final in this competition, and despite failing to win the first leg in the previous two (losing 4-2 to Benfica in 2018-19 before drawing 1-1 with Barcelona in 2021-22), they ultimately progressed both times.
Tottenham, by contrast, are in their first major European quarter-final since the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League. They’ve only won one of their last 13 quarter-final matches (D6 L6) too.
A repeat of their sole victory in that spell, a 1-0 home win over Man City in April 2019, would be very welcome here before the return leg in Germany next week.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt Head-to-Head
This is the third competition in which Tottenham Hotspur and Eintracht Frankfurt will have locked horns.
The most recent meetings occurred in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2022. A goalless draw in Germany gave little hint of what would unfold in north London in the return fixture.
Daichi Kamada gave the visitors the lead, but goals from Son Heung-min either side of a Harry Kane penalty meant Spurs were 3-1 up before half time. The match ended 3-2.
The only other European tie between Tottenham and Eintracht was in the 1981-82 Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final. Spurs won 2-0 at home before losing 2-1 away in the second leg, progressing 3-2 on aggregate.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt Prediction
Tottenham Hotspur are favourites to win the first leg, given a 52.3% chance of a victory by the Opta supercomputer.
Its 10,000 simulations of the match have split the remaining outcomes almost evenly. A draw is rated as a 24.3% possibility, while a victory for Eintracht Frankfurt has been deemed a 23.3% shot.
In seven of the eight European campaigns in which Spurs reached at least the semi-finals, they won their home leg in the quarter-finals.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Thursday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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