A World Cup winner, a potential Premier League striker and the fastest Bundesliga player in history are all part of an Eintracht Frankfurt side aiming to end Tottenham’s season.
The two clubs meet in the Europa League quarter-finals with Spurs hosting the German team on Thursday for the first leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, before the second leg at Deutsche Bank Park on April 17.
Tottenham’s hopes of saving their season by lifting the Europa League in Bilbao on May 21 now hinge on a last-eight tie against the Bundesliga’s third-placed side, who lost their star player Omar Marmoush in January following a £63.2m move to Manchester City.
Sky Sports talks to Sky in Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt reporter Dennis Bayer to give us the lowdown on the 2022 Europa League winners, who have an ex-Chelsea striker out to haunt Spurs…
‘Reinvented Gotze playing quarterback role at Frankfurt’
Mario Gotze, who famously scored Germany’s World Cup-winning goal in 2014, pulls the strings for Frankfurt, and the 32-year-old is hugely experienced, having made more than 300 Bundesliga appearances and played 119 games in European competition.
DB: “Mario Gotze has developed especially well in the last month, and he’s becoming more of a core player for them.
“He hasn’t just rediscovered himself, he’s reinvented himself. If you look at the young Mario Gotze, when he was at Borussia Dortmund, he was one of the best players in the world. He was fast, he could dribble, he could shoot, and he had great vision and intelligence.
“Then he moved to Bayern Munich and his career took a little slide, because he didn’t really fit in there. He didn’t have a big injury, but he had some health problems [a metabolic disorder] so he was off the radar.
“Then he moved to PSV Eindhoven, and there he became a different Mario Gotze, because he’s not that explosive, not that fast anymore.
“And now at Frankfurt, he’s like a quarterback. He’s playing a little more defensively than he did at the prime of his career, but he still has outstanding vision and the ability to scan everything that’s happening on the field, so he assists and starts the offensive actions for the team. He’s not the one anymore who does the highlight-reel stuff, but he’s great for giving their game structure. He’s the brain of the team.”
PL target Ekitike ‘one of the best Bundesliga players’
Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike is reportedly of interest to Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, and he will want to prove against Spurs that he can cut it against Premier League opposition.
The 22-year-old Frenchman, who was once a Newcastle target, has scored 19 goals and provided eight assists in all competitions this season, so will he follow Marmoush in moving to the English top flight this summer?
With Arsenal and Manchester United linked with a move for Ekitike, watch every Bundesliga goal and assist from the French forward
DB: “Ekitike’s great. He’s one of the best players in the Bundesliga because he’s really fast, he’s tall, and very good technically with the ball, so that makes him a weapon. He’s the one Spurs need to contain offensively to stop Frankfurt.
“The links to Premier League clubs are definitely there. I don’t know exactly where he will go but Frankfurt are pretty sure that he will leave at the end of the season.
“I think Ekitike has everything to play for a top Bundesliga club. But he’s not a training monster, so that could be an issue for a Premier League club. He’s also not the most powerful guy, although he’s athletic despite being a little thin.
“But I think with his abilities, his speed and his finishing, he could definitely play a big role in the Premier League.”
Frankfurt have fastest Bundesliga player in history
If Gotze’s vision and Ekitike’s quality fail to hurt Spurs, then Frankfurt possess another weapon in Jean-Matteo Bahoya, who is the fastest player in Bundesliga history. Last month, the 19-year-old clocked up a speed of 23.09mph – watch his record-breaking pace below.
Watch Frankfurt’s Jean-Matteo Bahoya record the fastest speed in Bundesliga history this season
DB: “One of the hottest players right now is Jean-Matteo Bahoya. He joined a year and a half ago from the French second tier for €8m (£6.8m), but then he didn’t play that much.
“This season, however, he’s developing very fast and scored his first two goals for Frankfurt. He also became the first Bundesliga player to clock over 37km/h (23mph).
“He’s a right-winger, and he’s the guy to look out for. He doesn’t have a high buzz around him, but he could be the next really good guy from Frankfurt.
“One of Frankfurt’s biggest strengths are counter-attacks because they have these fast players.
“When they brought in boss Dino Toppmoller they wanted to develop more of a possession-based approach, and they tried to implement that last season, but it didn’t work out that well.
“Now they’ve gone back to being that high-speed team and since then they’ve been more and more dangerous.”
Could an ex-Chelsea striker haunt Spurs?
A player at Frankfurt who has played in the Premier League is Michy Batshuayi. The former Chelsea and Crystal Palace striker joined Frankfurt in the winter transfer window from Galatasaray, and the 31-year-old Belgium international has scored two goals in seven appearances across all competitions.
DB: “Batshuayi was a Marmoush replacement as a player that could fit in right away.
Batshuayi has scored twice in the Bundesliga
“They are kind of happy with him because they didn’t think that he would come in and score 15 goals in the second half of the season – he’s a rotational player coming in, not a core player for them.
“He’s giving them some physicality and some presence in the box. He adds a different component to the offensive game because he’s a little more powerful. He can keep the balls and hold it for a few seconds until the rest of the team comes to him.”
But there is also the potential for Frankfurt to be stung by Tottenham forward Mathys Tel, whom they targeted in January before the Bayern Munich teenager joined Spurs on loan.
DB: “Frankfurt wanted to bring Mathys Tel in as a replacement for Marmoush. In an interview with Toppmoller last week, he was very open about that, and he confirmed that he likes him.
“Toppmoller also trained him when he was the assistant at Bayern a few years ago. He wanted to bring him to Frankfurt, but they couldn’t manage to do it.”
‘Spurs face one of the best atmospheres in Germany’
Deutsche Bank Park is the home of Eintracht Frankfurt
A red-hot 58,000-capacity Deutsche Bank Park awaits Tottenham for next Thursday’s second leg in Germany, so will that prove to be the graveyard for Spurs’ season?
DB: “It’s one of the best and most fired-up atmospheres in Germany. If Tottenham are not good at handling such atmospheres, it’s going to be an opportunity for Toppmoller’s side.
“Frankfurt are on the up. If they can play at their highest level, they have an advantage, and I would say Frankfurt will move into the semis.
“But they’re not as consistent as in the first half of the season, so that could be a factor in Frankfurt which we will see. But I would say that they have the advantage.”
