Tottenham have received a major lift in their push for a top-eight finish in the Champions League league phase.<\/p>\n
Spurs\u2019 campaign took another turn this week after a 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, a result that eased the pressure on head coach Thomas Frank and strengthened the club\u2019s chances of securing direct qualification for the last-16.<\/p>\n
Dortmund, who sit second in the Bundesliga and had lost only three of their previous 27 matches in all competitions before travelling to north London, were widely tipped to overcome a Spurs side that had managed just one win in six weeks. Instead, Frank oversaw an assertive display, aided by a first-half red card shown to Daniel Svensson, keeping qualification firmly in Tottenham\u2019s control.<\/p>\n
Attention now shifts to next Wednesday\u2019s final league-phase fixture away to Eintracht Frankfurt. A win would guarantee a place in the last-16 and avoid a two-legged play-off in February. A draw is unlikely to be sufficient, while defeat would almost certainly end their hopes of automatic qualification.<\/p>\n
With injury worries mounting \u2014 including a potential issue for Lucas Bergvall after he was forced off against Dortmund \u2014 avoiding two extra matches would be a significant boost for Frank and his squad.<\/p>\n
Tottenham also travel to Germany with a strong recent record against Frankfurt, having never lost in four modern meetings, with two wins and two draws. They were victorious at Deutsche Bank Park last season on their way to Europa League success, courtesy of a Dominic Solanke penalty.<\/p>\n
Their prospects appear even brighter this time around. Frankfurt have already been eliminated from the competition after a late defeat to Qarabag, their fifth loss in six matches, a run that led to the dismissal of head coach Dino Toppm\u00f6ller. Interim manager Dennis Schmitt took charge for the first time in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
With nothing at stake in Europe, Frankfurt\u2019s focus is expected to shift toward their Bundesliga campaign, where they sit just outside the European qualification places. They face Hoffenheim this weekend before hosting Bayer Leverkusen \u2014 a key rival for European spots \u2014 shortly after Spurs\u2019 visit, which could influence squad selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tottenham have received a major lift in their push for a top-eight finish in the Champions League league phase. Spurs\u2019 campaign took another turn this week after a 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, a result that eased the pressure on head coach Thomas Frank and strengthened the club\u2019s chances of securing direct qualification for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":57754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2257265942.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57755,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57753\/revisions\/57755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}