Eintracht Frankfurt 0-1 Spurs (agg 1-2) | Ange’s verdict

Ange Postecoglou said he was ‘super proud’ after the players delivered one of the great European performances to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 at Deutsche Bank Park and progress to the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League.

With the tie on a knife-edge at 1-1 after the first leg last week – a match we’d dominated - the general consensus was that we’d have it all to do in Germany, against a team flying high in third in the Bundesliga, coming off the back of a 3-0 win on Sunday.

However, again, we gave as good as we got. We were ahead on passes, possession and efforts on goal when the decisive moment arrived on 43 minutes. Cristian Romero picked James Maddison’s run into the box and as goalkeeper Kaua Santos came charging out, Madders got to the ball first before being wiped out. After a VAR check, a penalty was awarded, calmly clipped home by Dominic Solanke. Unfortunately, Maddison couldn’t continue, replaced by Deki Kulusevski.

We created numerous chances in our best spell after half-time as Romero and Rodri Bentancur headed corners wide and Mathys Tel fired over. As expected, Eintracht Frankfurt then had their best spell, mostly revolving around Rasmus Kristensen, who missed the target twice when well placed and set up Fares Chaibi for Guglielmo Vicario’s best save of the night.

The final whistle prompted glorious scenes as the players went to the bench and then to our travelling fans – what a night!

And we now know we’ll face Norwegian side Bodo Glimt in the semi-finals (1/8 May) after they toppled Lazio on penalties. Manchester United and Athletic Club meet in the other semi-final.

Speaking to our Review Show afterwards, Ange said: “I’m just super proud of this group of players and the staff. We’re playing away from home, quarter-finals of a European competition against a top side and you know you’re going to have to work hard, you're going to have to be disciplined - and we were all that. We were brave, still played our football when we could, created chances and, over the two legs, I think we more than fully deserved to go through. I’m super proud of the players.”

Ange on his final words to the players before they went out...

“It’s fair to say, there's been a lot of noise around me, the club, everything… but you wouldn't know it, and I just I've seen a group of players and staff who never wavered in their belief of what we’re trying to achieve and when you have the full squad in and everyone's healthy and everyone's in good shape, there's a real energy with this team. I just told them to go out there and reap the rewards of all the tough stuff they've been through. A lot of teams would have been divided and given up after the season we've had, but not this group, and I'm super pleased that they've got the rewards.”

Ange on the players grasping the big moments...

“Yes, we had to, whether that was defensively or with the ball, I mean the courage of Madders to get on the end of that (pass from Cuti), it's just unbelievable, and then Dom's got the composure to put it away. Every time we needed a block, every time we needed a tackle, it was there. Every time we needed someone to create, we did that. We could have got a second goal to kill off the tie, but the fact we won the way we did, I think is even more important for us because now the boys know that they can do that, they can come to a place like this, knowing we need to win, knowing we need to most likely need keep a clean sheet and they did all those things.”

Ange on the difference of having the spine of the team back together...

“I think that's where people haven’t understood why we've had the troubles we've had this year, and it's not just the injuries, it's injuries happening to... like I said, that's the spine of our team we’ve had missing for a large chunk of the season, and I include Dom in that, as well. But, within that, the guys who had to carry us through... we’re in a semi-final because when those guys were missing, others were stepping up, you know, young guys like Archie, Ben, Fraser at Ibrox, all these guys got us to this point. The fact we’ve got the whole group back together now is brilliant.”