Last 16 spot secured with superb win in Frankfurt

A superb professional performance saw us enjoy an excellent win at Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday night to book a fourth-place finish in the league phase of the Champions League and guarantee our path straight into the last 16.

Needing a victory to confirm a top eight berth, we were dominant from start to finish at Deutsche Bank Park and eventually got the goals we deserved in the second half, Randal Kolo Muani scoring against his former club seconds after the restart before Dominic Solanke – whose penalty beat Frankfurt on this ground in the Europa League quarter-finals last season – secured the win with a clinical finish. That means we avoid the play-off round and can now look forward to a two-legged last 16 tie in March against one of either Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Club Brugge or Galatasaray.

We headed to Germany struggling to find form in the Premier League and with a catalogue of injuries depleting our travelling squad, yet we were flying in the Champions League and were confident of repeating last season’s success in Frankfurt. We had the ball in the net just two minutes in, Kolo Muani driving to the byline down the left and drilling across the box, with Xavi Simons sliding the loose ball into the bottom corner only for VAR to rule it out for a foul by Destiny Udogie in the build-up.

Frankfurt goalkeeper Kaua Santos had to tip away a Joao Palhinha header from a corner as we made a strong start to the game although the hosts, backed by a noisy home support, had a couple of counter-attacking moments which we needed to snuff out.

A flurry of great chances came our way around the half-hour mark although we were unable to take any of them. Firstly, we were in down the left again as Xavi slid in Kolo Muani but Udogie completely missed his header eight yards out, before Wilson Odobert played a one-two with Xavi and hit a crisp low right-footed shot from 20 yards that thumped off the foot of the post. Xavi was then gifted possession inside the Frankfurt box but Santos saved his effort with his legs and it remained goalless.

We were dominating possession but it was the home side who went close to breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half-time. Hugo Larsson got in behind our defence and lashed a shot which clipped the top of the crossbar on its way over and we went in at the break in sixth place in the table.

Having spurned so many chances in that first period, we took just 66 seconds of the second half to open the scoring! A short free-kick out on the left ended with the ball at Xavi’s feet, he curled a cross to the back post which Cristian Romero headed into the six-yard box where Kolo Muani was on hand to poke home. Although Frankfurt looked for a response and mounted a bit of pressure, we weren’t unduly troubled and instead, Kolo Muani almost added a second with a looping header that went just wide, before a lovely move concluded with Pape Matar Sarr’s curling shot pushed away at full stretch by Santos.

More opportunities were created, Xavi with a deflected free-kick which went wide and Romero throwing himself at a cross which Santos gathered on his goal-line. Then came the second goal with 13 minutes remaining, as Palhinha’s ball forwards was flicked on by Frankfurt substitute Mahmoud Dahoud into the path of Solanke and he took a touch before drilling across Santos into the far corner. That took any jeopardy out of the game for us and we were able to see out the remainder of the match without any trouble to cap another excellent Champions League night.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Kolo Muani 47, Solanke 77.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Vicario, Palhinha.

Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain).

Venue: Deutsche Bank Park.

Weather: Sleet, light winds, two degrees.

Attendance: 58,000.