Tottenham 1-1 Eintracht Frankfurt: Spurs frustrated in first-leg draw

Tottenham were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw in their Europa League quarter-final first leg at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.

Amid a dismal Premier League campaign and growing pressure on boss Ange Postecoglou, this tie has taken on added significance for Tottenham, a last chance to save their season.

Eintracht will surely now be favourites ahead of the return fixture, but parity was the least Spurs deserved, even if they and Postecoglou must have feared the worst after six minutes.

The Bundesliga side led as star man Hugo Ekitike raced forward and fired a superb strike into the bottom-right corner.

James Maddison had been caught in possession prior to that goal, yet he made amends by creating the equaliser 20 minutes later, cutting the ball back for Pedro Porro to delicately flick past Kaua Santos.

While Ekitike tamely passed up an opportunity to restore Eintracht's lead on the stroke of half-time, Tottenham were well on top following the restart.

In a frantic spell, Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur each hit the crossbar either side of a strong Santos save from Son Heung-min.

Spurs kept pushing, but Brennan Johnson blazed over before Santos superbly denied Micky van de Ven at the last, leaving Postecoglou's men with plenty to do in Germany.

Full-time in the first leg. pic.twitter.com/E98Ci5TOZZ
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 10, 2025

Data debrief: Advantage Eintracht

This is Eintracht's third Europa League quarter-final and the third in which they have failed to win the first leg. However, in each of the previous two, they have then advanced.

That looks the most likely outcome again after this result, which brought a mixed response from the Tottenham crowd at full-time as Postecoglou wore a blank expression.

His side had the better of the chances, but Santos made five saves and twice saw the frame of his goal come to the rescue as Eintracht rode their luck.

And though they had 10 shots and got six on target, Spurs only accumulated 0.89 expected goals, suggesting those opportunities were far from clear cut.