Four reasons why Tottenham Hotspur fans will be optimistic in view of the second stage

Tottenham Hotspur designed 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt in the first stage of their quarter of the Europa League, but produced one of their best performances for a long time.

After recovering from a horrible beginning that saw Hugo Ekitike give Frankfurt the advantage after six minutes, Spurs dominated the Bundesliga side and drawn through the intelligent wheel interface by Pedro Porro. They hit the wood on several occasions and Micky Van de Ven approached anguish to mark a late winner, but the defender’s header has bounced from his foot and above the bar.

Some people will be understandably nervous that Spurs has wasted so many good possibilities that they could repent. Coach Ange Postecoglou even joked that “football gods have had eyes elsewhere”, so “we will have to do it without them this year”.

However, there is many tests that suggest that the Spurs can beat their opponents in Germany next week and move on to the semifinals. Here, Atletico It breaks the reason why it was such an encouraging performance.

Spell of four minutes crazy

Postecoglou said that Spurs “overwhelmed” Frankfurt and there was a frantic four -minute period in the second half that summarized it. Lucas Bergvall cleverly evaded two defenders before crashing a right shot against the pole and then sixty seconds after Kaua Santos, the goalkeeper of the second choice of Frankfurt who is purifying for their wounded captain Kevin Trapp, the blow of his son with the tip on the bar. Rodrigo Bentancur therefore hit the processing of the wood from the resulting corner.

There have been too many games in this season in which the Spurs seemed slow in advance and fought to create possibilities, but it wasn’t like that Thursday evening. Madmer started slowly but produced a wonderful assistance for Porro. He also had a shot that climbed the line in the second half. Even the substitutes had an impact while Mathys Tel and Djed Spence joined to create an opportunity for Brennan Johnson, who was almost a replica of the first goal that scored in the 3-1 victory last weekend on Southampton. It is worrying that the record of the club that signs Dominic Solanke has not marked since January 4th, but has still been effective and has played a crucial role in the lens of Porro chasing the Lofted passage of Son.

Richarlison came out of the bench to the 87th minute for his first appearance from February 6 after recovering from a calf injury. Spurs seemed much more threatening in advance and Postecoglou has a wider variety of options to select. Frankfurt’s decision to wipe out their substitutes for a couple of minutes towards the end of the game stressed that they were clinging and desperate to return to Germany with the level of draw.

“We made them work hard in the first half, so we learned in the second half, with our ability to open the teams, we would have put them under pressure,” said Postecoglou. “That’s exactly what happened and the boys did everything in the right way – I couldn’t ask for more from them. We hit the crossbar three times, their custodian made surprising rescues. We also had a couple of other good opportunities. In any other night, we would have a comfortable victory. If we can perform so up there, and we are not there why we have not yet given us a good chance.”

Santos focuses on the bar (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

First choice defensive unit reunited

This was the first time since Spurs lost 1-0 against Crystal Palace on October 27 that Cristian Romero, Micky Van de Ven, Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie and the first choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario started a game together.

It means that in the last five months, Postecoglou has not been able to ask for his favorite defensive combination that helped Spurs end up fifth in the Premier League last season. It was a surprise to see Djed Spence, which this year was one of their most coherent artists, fell on the bench but Udogie and Porro justified their inclusion on him.

Porro appeared with a fantastic equalizer and created multiple opportunities for goals with his sets sets. Udogie was constantly charmed up and down the left wing to provide Madra and son with an option on the overlap.

Ekitike was quick enough and agile to escape the clutches of Van de Ven and Romero on a couple of occasions in the first half, but they canceled his threat after the break. At the 59th minute, Van de Ven chased Jean-Matteo Bahoya and produced a superb sliding tackle to regain the ball.

The meeting of this quintet should not be underestimated.

Rodrigo Bentancur

During the first half of the season, Bentancur and Yves Bissauma were constantly rotated in the role of n. 6 And it is not clear who preferred Postecoglou. The performances of Bissauma can be irregular, recently Postecoglou has declared to “sometimes can leave the drift of the game”, while Bencur has lost more games with two separate brain commodities and causes a suspension for the racist comments that did on Son.

In recent weeks, it has become clear that Bentancur is the first choice and its exceptional performance on Thursday stressed why. Uruguay international resisted the temptation to sink into all contrasts, of which it can be guilty and has been governed everywhere. The 27 -year -old was waterproof under pressure and at some point cut the ball over one of the Frankfurt strikers outside his box. Bentancur’s controlled display allowed Bergvall and Maddler to push forward.

It took most of the season, but Postecoglou has finally discovered his best mixture of midfield. Dejan Kulusevski can be added to the mix or used on the right wing depending on what each game requires. Encouraging, Postecoglou told TNT Sports after the game that Kulusevski should return to training this weekend or Monday and which has the opportunity to present himself from the bench in the second stage.

Bentancur impressed by Frankfurt (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Cup racing performance

The shape of the Tottenham in the championship this season has been horrible. They are 14th in the table and have lost half of their games, but they have a strange ability to produce incredible results when requested. They eliminated Manchester City and Manchester United from the Carabao Cup and beat Liverpool in the first leg of their semifinals despite suffering from a riveting crisis of accident at that moment. Liverpool was practically full strength while Postecoglou was then to start the 18 -year -old Archie Gray and Dragusin Radu in central defense.

Spurs beat City 4-0 on the back of the Ethhad when Pep Guardiola’s team was starting to oscillate but they were still second in the championship. Spurs do not have the consistency to compete during a season of 38 games, but the nature of the tournament football could adapt to them.

The only threat of Frankfurt was Ekitike and if the Spurs will be able to limit his influence next week, they should take a step forward towards reaching the final in Bilbao on May 21.

(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)