It’s the last round of matches in the UEFA Champions League Megagroup, and Spurs are fortunate to be going into it with a fixture against a team in even worse form than they have been.
With a point rescued in the 90th-minute from their trip to Burnley at the weekend, Spurs head into their final Champions League group match with nothing having been resolved concerning their misfiring Premier League season so far. Cristian Romero’s extremely late equaliser may have kept Thomas Frank in his job for a while, but the fact remains that his team are now just eight points above the relegation places and continuing to sink.
But the Champions League has been a different matter for them so far this season. They’re in fifth place in the group going into their final round of fixtures, and their trip to play Eintracht Frankfurt sees them take on a team in arguably even worse form than they are. Eintracht have won one of their last eight in the Bundesliga, and their form in Europe is no better. They’re in 33rd place in the group and have already been eliminated from this year’s competition with a game to spare, with just a win and a draw from their seven matches to show for it.
These two sides met in the quarter-finals of the Europa League last April, with the first leg ending in a 1-1 draw at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and a superb defensive performance in the second leg resulting in a 1-0 win for Spurs, marking a significant step en route to winning the competition, which resulted in them being in this season’s Champions League in the first place. Frankfurt’s first leg goal was scored by Hugo Ekitike, who they have very much missed this season following his summer sale to Liverpool.
One player who has shown up for Spurs’ last couple of matches has been Wilson Odobert. With excellent performances against both his former club Burnley, in which he provided the assist for the equalising goal, and Borussia Dortmund, the winger is expected to start in this match and has an opportunity to build on his last couple of showings for them.
Eintracht Frankfurt haven’t had too much to smile about themselves recently either, but one potential danger for Spurs to take into account is attacking midfielder Can Uzun. The 20-year-old Turkish international has put in a couple decent performances over the course of January, scoring against both Qarabağ in their last Champions League match and in a 3-3 draw against Borussia Dortmund. With top scorer Jonathan Berkhardt having been sidelined since the end of November, he currently represents one of their bigger attacking threats.
One of the small bright spots from Spurs’ trip to Burnley was that at least they didn’t pick up any fresh injuries; Pedro Porro and Cristian Romero were both withdrawn, but Thomas Frank has already played down their chances of missing this match. Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ben Davies, Richarlison James Maddison, Mohammed Kudus, Joao Palhinha and Dejan Kulusevski remain out of action.
Pape Sarr was taken to hospital after falling ill during the AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco, and although Thomas Frank said before the Burnley match that, “he’s ready to train tomorrow and ready for selection on Saturday”, he didn’t make the first team or the bench. He should be back in contention for this match.
Eintracht Frankfurt have injuries of their own, as well. The aforementioned Jonathan Berkhardt is still injured, but their more important absentee is Arnaud Kalimuendo-Muinga, who signed on loan for them from Nottingham Forest earlier in January, scored in successive Bundesliga matches against Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim, and then promptly got injured and is now expected to be out until the middle of February. A longer-term absentee for them is Michy Batshuayi, who’s broken his ankle and won’t be back until April.
