a cloud.
Ange will be with us for longer than we wanted as Spurs got past their German opponents Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0, to advance to the semi-finals of the Europa League, with an overblown performance.
This result, 2-1 on aggregate, says a lot a bout three things
First, it says a lot about UEFA’s second string competition, half of the teams in the semi-finals are Premier League sides who have massively struggled and under-performed this season, so much so that even now neither of them are actually technically safe from relegation yet. It won’t take much to avoid the drop but both of them could very easily finish 17th.
It says a lot for the Bundesliga. Frankfurt sit third in that league and they looked woeful against Ange’s side.
It says a lot about Spurs’ season so far. That this was overblown into the greatest performance you’d ever seen by the pundits and some of the fans. Yes, it was amongst the best games they’d played this season but that is the lowest of low bars. But what can expect when Solanke is showered with praise for getting back on the scoresheet for the first after 11 scoreless games… after scoring a penalty.
So it could have all been so different and Ange could have been on his way this morning but for Micky van de Ven testing out those hamstrings. That lad is a Rolls-Royce. The scorer of Frankfurt’s goal in the first leg was through, with just a simple hump up the park. Romero is lollygagging because he knows Micky is there and Micky saves the day. That’s how we normally get a knackered Micky, luckily not this time.
The first half was pretty even, both sides having similar amount of the ball, both sides not doing much with it. Both keepers making the odd save.
The Frankfurt keeper made his impact in the 37th minute. He made it on Maddison. A long ball from Romero and Maddison was onto it in the box, looking to head it he was completely taken out by the Frankfurt goalie. Of course the ref blew to play on, even with the fact there was obviously a head injury as Maddison stayed down. The Frankfurt keeper pretended to be hurt, while you just had to look at what happened to know Maddison wasn’t milking it. It was a clattering. With the injury and VAR telling the ref to pull his finger out it was five minutes before Solanke took the spot kick. Though as with the last pen, Tel wanted to take it but was overruled by the sideline.
A stuttering run up saw the keeper commit himself and Solanke get “his goal”.
We were getting all the Solanke praise, his running, his pressing, not anything about him not knowing where to be when someone is looking to play him into a good scoring position.
Maddison tried to carry on but didn’t last long and was subbed before the break
The second half saw the usual post half-time Ange team-talk slump. As Frankfurt took control of the ball, having knocking on three quarters of it, producing more attempts but never actually looking like scoring that much. Yeah, the odd thing here and there but a collective couldn’t hit a cow’s arse job.
Both sides were profligate but Frankfurt looked like they would never score.
It did take one of those Vicario saves to keep the scoreline at one nil. One of two he made in the half, Frankfurt’s keeper didn’t have to make one. Yes they defended but Spurs offered nothing in attack for most of that second half. So was it really the all-round display some were complaining.
But they hung on and saw it out and Ange joins Bill Nich, Keith Burkinshaw and Poch as the Spurs’ managers to take them to a semi-final of a European cup competition. The other three reached finals, two winning. Ange still has the chance to keep up his boast… but it means as he said himself after…
“You’re going to have to put up with me for a little bit longer.”