History | Facing Frankfurt

We first travelled to Frankfurt in May, 1911 - almost 114 years on, we're back in central Germany for a crucial UEFA Europa League quarter-final, second leg on Thursday evening (8pm UK).

Before last week's first leg, we last faced Eintracht Frankfurt in the group stages of the Champions League in 2022/23, our trip to Frankfurt in October, 2022 represented our first clash with the Bundesliga side for 40 years.

Last time out...

We recovered from Eintracht Frankfurt's lighting start to dominate last week's first leg as it finished 1-1 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Hugo Ekitike struck after five minutes, but we were soon on the front foot and Pedro Porro fashioned a superb backheeled equaliser after good work from James Maddison.

Chances followed in the second half. Lucas Bergvall crashed a shot onto the crossbar from 30 yards, Rodrigo Bentancur powered a header against the woodwork while visiting goalkeeper Kaua Santos denied Heung-Min Son and Maddison.

It looked like the pressure was going to tell in the final seconds when Micky van de Ven stretched to meet Porro's free-kick, only to head into the ground and see Santos tip the ball onto the bar and to safety.

It's all to play for at Deutsche Bank Park on Thursday!

Champions League, 22/23

Antonio Conte’s side had beaten Marseille 2-0 here in N17 and lost to Sporting in Lisbon by the same scoreline before heading to Germany, where we picked up a point in an entertaining goalless draw in front of 50,000 fans at the Deutsche Bank Park.

Both sides had spells of pressure throughout the game and created plenty chances within them, but just four of the 23 shots at goal in the game were on target despite plenty of goalmouth action.

We went close on a few occasions in the first half, Harry Kane sliding an effort a yard wide, Heung-Min Son going even closer with a right-foot curler before Ivan Perisic’s shot flicked off Kristijan Jakic and spun inches wide just prior to the break. At the other end, Sebastian Rode’s shot deflected off the head of Perisic and flew over the bar on 18 minutes while it was Rode with the only shot on target in that opening half.

Hugo Lloris was at full-stretch to keep out Ansgar Knauff’s volley on the turn after the break, Son hit one that skimmed the top of the Frankfurt net and Jesper Lindstrom blazed over from 18 yards as the frenetic nature of the game continued, even if the goals eluded both sides.

Frankfurt: Trapp, Tuta, Hasebe, N'Dicka, Jakic, Rode (c) (Pellegrini 71), Sow, Knauff, Kamada, Lindstrom (Ebimbe 87), Kolo Muani (Borre 57).

Spurs: Lloris (c), Romero, Dier, Lenglet (Davies 78), Royal, Bentancur, Hojbjerg, Perisic (Sessegnon 71), Richarlison (Bryan 79), Kane, Son.

The return fixture took place just eight days later here at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, when our 3-2 victory took us to the top of Group D.

The visitors struck first on 14 minutes when Daichi Kamada slotted home although we were level six minutes later, Harry Kane sliding the perfect pass to release Son on goal and he produced a composed finish to beat Kevin Trapp. And we turned it around from the penalty spot on 28 minutes after VAR had stepped in to award a spotkick which Kane duly converted.

Lloris made a smart save to keep out Lindstrom’s angled drive and four minutes later, we extended our lead in style, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg clipping over a cross from the right and Son smashing a fierce volley home from 15 yards.

Frankfurt were reduced to 10 men when Tuta was dismissed just before the hour mark after picking up two bookings in two minutes, however they still carried a threat and reduced the deficit when substitute Faride Alidou headed in a corner with three minutes left.

That set up a nervy end, which could have changed had Kane not blazed his second penalty over the bar in stoppage time, but we held out to win and went on to top the group after a dramatic 2-1 win in Marseille, before losing to Milan in the Last 16.

Spurs: Lloris (c), Romero, Dier (Sanchez 78), Lenglet, Royal, Bentancur (Bissouma 67), Hojbjerg (Bryan 85), Sessegnon, Richarlison (Skipp 67), Kane, Son (Lucas 85).

Frankfurt: Trapp, Tuta, Hasebe (Dina Ebimbe 69), N'Dicka, Jakic, Rode (c) (Smolcic 70), Sow, Lenz (Alidou 70), Lindstrom, Kamada (Gotze 78), Kolo Muani (Borre 69).

Breaking new ground

Our first-ever game in the city of Frankfurt came way back in 1911, when we played a team that were the forerunners to the current Eintracht Frankfurt side.

In fact, the friendly came just 12 days after two teams based in the city - FFC Victoria and FVF Kickers - had merged to become Frankfurt Football Club Kickers-Victoria and so we became Kickers-Victoria’s first overseas opponents when we met on 25 May, 1911.

The game was the sixth and final fixture of our 1911 tour to Germany, the first time we had ever visited the country. We had won the previous five matches, beating a North German Combined XI 4-1 in Hamburg before moving on to Berlin, where we defeated Preussen (7-0) and Hertha FC (4-1). Next stop was Leipzig for an 8-1 win over Wacker FC and then Brunswick, where we beat local side Eintracht 4-1.

Our final stop saw us visit Frankfurt to take on the newly-formed Kickers-Victoria in what was only the fourth match in the club’s fledgling history. As was the case for all our matches on this tour, this game was one of the biggest of the 1910/11 season for our hosts.

While we know our team line-up from the contest, unfortunately we’re not aware of the goalscorers in our 6-0 win, apart from the fact that a Dr Friedrich Claus scored two own goals for the home side! We were 4-0 up at half-time.

With this game bringing to a close our tour of Germany, it seems our travelling party enjoyed themselves before the journey back to England. In a report of the game from the Frankfurt Football Club newspaper dated 1 June 1911, it concluded:

“In the evening, a small, impromptu social gathering took place in the Stadtgarten, and the English proved themselves equal to the occasion, handling the full tankards. German and English speeches alternated in lively succession; even the chairman of Spurs volunteered to sing an English chant. It wasn't until early morning that the English football performers parted ways, some of whom, under the safe guidance of a few experts, wanted to take a closer look at Frankfurt by night!”

Kickers-Victoria FC: Charbout-Mollard, Claus, Baumgartner, Schweickert, Jockel, van t'Oever, ter Horst, Dornbusch, Becker, Pickel, Kirchgarth.

Spurs: Joyce, Collins, Wilkes, Steel D, Kennedy, Darnell, Curtis, Minter, Humphreys, Steel R, Middlemiss.

Friendly in Frankfurt

Our second visit to Frankfurt in July 1976 saw us take on tonight’s opponents in their current guise for the very first time, having taken the name of ‘TuS Eintracht Frankfurt 1861’ in 1920.

We’d spent the post-season on a mammoth 27-day tour of Canada, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia in which we played nine matches, winning all of them, and we didn’t return back in England until 25 May.

There wasn’t much of a break for the players though, as no sooner were we back in pre-season training ahead of the 1976/77 campaign, than we were off on tour again, this time to Germany!

First up was a 3-1 win against VfL Osnabruck on 24 July before we faced Eintracht Frankfurt four days later, who themselves were in pre-season and had drawn 0-0 against St Etienne in their previous friendly.

The home side went ahead in the 18th minute when Don McAllister fouled Wolfgang Kraus in the area and Jurgen Grabowski sent Pat Jennings the wrong way from the penalty spot.

We more than matched our hosts for an hour before three goals in an 11-minute spell saw the game slip away. Bernd Nickel took advantage of a defensive error to fire home from 12 yards on 63 minutes, while Grabowski scored his second four minutes later after Willie Young’s clearance fell to him on the edge of the area. Willi Neuberger drilled home to make it 4-0 before we finally got on the scoresheet with eight minutes remaining, Young heading past Peter Kunter.

Eintracht Frankfurt: Koitka (Kunter 57), Reichel (Trinklein 57), Neuberger, Korbel, Beverungen, Muller, Kraus (Weidle 73), Nickel, Wenzel (Borchers 73), Grabowski, Bihn (Stradt 46).

Spurs: Jennings, Naylor, McAllister, Pratt, Young, Osgood, Coates, Perryman, Armstrong (Conn 63), Jones, Neighbour.

Up for the cup

Our first competitive encounter with Eintracht Frankfurt came during our 1981/82 European Cup Winners’ Cup run, when we met in the third round.

The first leg took place at White Hart Lane at a stage in the season where we were flying. Seventh in Division One, Keith Burkinshaw’s side had also reached the sixth round of the FA Cup and were gearing up for a League Cup Final against Liverpool when Frankfurt arrived in N17 on 3 March.

But we made heavy going of the game on the night and needed a goal from centre-half Paul Miller to break the deadlock on the hour mark. Micky Hazard fed Ossie Ardiles, his shot was blocked but Miller was there to rifle home the rebound from 20 yards.

We then added a crucial second with seven minutes left, Hazard jinking past two defenders before firing home, although it needed a vital save from Ray Clemence to deny Norbert Nachtweih what would have been a key away goal for the visitors.

Spurs: Clemence, Hughton, Miller, Price, Hazard, Perryman, Ardiles, Galvin, Archibald, Hoddle, Crooks (Falco 60).

Frankfurt: Juriens, Sziedat, Pezzey, Korbel, Neuberger, Lorant, Kunast (Gulich 77), Falkenmayer, Nachtweih (Lottermann 85), Nickel, Cha.

The second leg in Frankfurt took place two weeks later, by which time we’d missed out on our first chance of silverware when we lost against Liverpool at Wembley.

And our European adventure looked like it was about to unravel as well when Eintracht wiped out our two-goal lead inside 15 minutes at the Waldstadion. There were only two minutes on the clock when Ardiles was dispossessed by Nachtweih, who released Ronald Borchers to slide home the opening goal.

Then South Korean striker Bum-Kun Cha beat Clemence from 15 yards out to make it 2-2 on aggregate and we were definitely wobbling in the face of some stern pressure from the home side. But we regrouped, rode out the storm and hit our hosts with the perfect sucker-punch with only 10 minutes remaining. Substitute Ricky Villa attacked down the left flank and played a ball inside which Chris Hughton picked up, laid into the path of Glenn Hoddle and he drilled low into the bottom corner to win us the tie. Unfortunately we went out in the semi-finals to Barcelona.

Frankfurt: Pahl, Sziedat, Neuberger, Pezzey, Lottermann (Kunast 81), Falkenmayer, Lorant, Borchers, Nachtweih, Nickel, Cha.

Spurs: Clemence, Hughton, Miller, Price, Hazard, Perryman, Ardiles (Roberts 28), Galvin, Archibald, Hoddle, Falco (Villa 69).