A hugely important win in the context of Tottenham’s Champions League campaign as they go to the top of the group, but they chose to do it the difficult way in London.
The words used by Spurs’ twitter account and so many fans were “And Breathe” after Tottenham spent the last 10 minutes of the game nervous of a Frankfurt equaliser despite Son’s brace, a Kane penalty, and a red card to Frankfurt’s Tuta on the hour mark, but a strong display, nonetheless.
By no means did Tottenham start the game well either, with the first 10 minutes most of the ball going to Frankfurt, and more sloppiness in possession, and a loose touch from Eric Dier gifted a tap-in to Daichi Kamada to give the German side the lead. This caused Spurs to explode into life and reinstate their quality.
Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son were linking up fantastically all night, and the defenders could not handle them one bit – and this was shown in Spurs’ first goal, which people would describe as a classic Tottenham goal, where Kane picked it up facing backwards to goal, turned, and slipped a through ball to the speedy South Korean who passed it in to equalise.
Frankfurt were quite aggressive with their tackling all night to try and mitigate the strength of the Spurs attack, but a clumsy tackle from Jakic gave Tottenham a penalty – which Kane obviously converted, and within half an hour, they were back ahead. The third goal was utter class all round. Hojbjerg had been brilliant all night and delivered a superb cross after a nice piece of skill on the edge, which Son volleyed with an insane amount of power which somehow stayed down as it came in off the roof of the net to make it 3-1, which was surprisingly the last goal scored by the team in white.
The good football continued into the second half, but just no goal came. This was easily up there with Tottenham’s best performances this season so far, yet it all came so difficult. A red card came for Tuta, and Hasebe was lucky to escape one, as they were struggling so much with Kane and Son, but then subs came for Spurs who simply could not keep the ball. Frankfurt pulled one back late on from a headed corner, then Kane skied a penalty in the 91st minute after Bryan Gil was hacked down.
Match Ratings
Hugo Lloris, 8 – Made some massively important saves this evening, particularly from Lindstrom, good performance
Emerson, 6 – Your average performance from Emerson. Sloppy in possession, not much creation but a few decent moments.
Cristian Romero, 7.5 – Some important challenges tonight, did not put a foot wrong. Solid.
Eric Dier, 5.5 – He would admit he was poor tonight, gave away a penalty and was sloppy in possession a number of times, but not his normal self.
Clement Lenglet, 7 – Relatively average, a few solid moments defensively and offensively again.
Ryan Sessegnon, 7.5 – Building on his MOTM from Brighton, looked great going forward again, and solid defensively.
Rodrigo Bentancur, 7 – A bit sloppy at times, including the yellow card but pressed well and dealt with Frankfurt’s threats
Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg, 8.5 – Dispossessed play and a superb assist tonight. He’s been great all season.
Richarlison, 7 – Nothing noteworthy but a solid performance, got into some good positions
Harry Kane, 8.5 – Amazing passing range, took his first penalty well, showed why he is world class tonight. Drops a point after skying the late penalty.
Heung-Min Son, 9.5 (MOTM) – Classy tonight, as good as he was against Leicester. Two fantastically taken goals, drew a red card and could have had a hat trick. Great to see him back.
Tottenham will be certainly grateful to have Dejan Kulusevski back at the weekend, who has been sorely missed. The capitulation will have to be analysed, whether it was the subs or potentially fatigue, but the most important thing is that they are one win away from knockout stage qualification, with Sporting at home next time.
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