A World Cup winner, a potential Premier League striker and the fastest Bundesliga player in history are all part of an Eintracht Frankfurt side that ends the Tottenham season.
The two clubs meet in the quarterfinals of the Europa League with traces that organize the German team on Thursday for the first stage in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, for the second stage in Deutsche Bank Park on April 17.
The hope of Tottenham to save their season by lifting the Europa League in Bilbao on 21 May now hung from a last -like band against the third placed side of the Bundesliga, who lost their star player Omar Marmoush in January after a £ 63.2 million transfer to Manchester City.
Sky Sports talks to Sky in the German Eintracht Frankfurt reporter Dennis Bayer to give us the lowdown on the winners of the Europa League 2022, who have an ex-Chelsea striker to chase Spurs …
'Released Gotze Games Quarterback Rol at Frankfurt'
Mario Gotze, who scored the World Cup-winning goal of Germany in 2014, pulls the strings for Frankfurt, and the 32-year-old is huge, who made more than 300 Bundesliga performances and played 119 games in the European competition.
DB: “Mario Gotze has developed well in the past month and he becomes more a core player for them.
“He not only rediscover himself, he has reinvented himself. If you look at the young Mario Gotze, when he was in Borussia Dortmund, he was one of the best players in the world. He was quickly, he could drip, he could shoot, and he had a great vision and intelligence.
“Then he moved to Bayern Munich and his career took a small slide because he didn't really fit in. He had no major 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 another Mario Gotze, because he is not that explosive, not so quickly anymore.
“And now at Frankfurt he is like a quarterback. He plays a little more defensive than he did in the prime of his career, but he still has an excellent vision and the opportunity to scan everything that happens on the field, so he helps the attacking actions for the team.
Pl Target Ekitike 'One of the best Bundesliga players'
Frankfurt Hugo Ekitike is said to be interesting for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, and he will want to prove to Spurs that he can cut it against the Premier League opposition.
The 22-year-old Frenchman, who was once a target in Newcastle, scored 19 goals and gave eight assists in all competitions this season, so will he follow Marmoush in the move to the English top flight this summer?
DB: “Ekitike is great. He is one of the best players in the Bundesliga because he is really fast, he is technically technically with the ball, so that makes him a weapon. He is the one who has to comprehend traces to stop Frankfurt.
“The links to Premier League clubs are certain. I don't know exactly where he is going, but Frankfurt is 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 is not a training sample, so that can be a problem for a Premier League club. He is also not the most powerful man, although he is athletic despite being a bit thin.
“But I think he could certainly play a major role in the Premier League with his capacities, his speed and his finish.”
Frankfurt has the fastest Bundesliga player in history
If the vision of Gotze and the quality of Ekitike does not harm, then Frankfurt has a different weapon in Jean-Matteo Bahoya, who is the fastest player in the history of Bundesliga. Last month the 19-year-old has a speed of 23.09 km / h clocked-looking its record break pace below.
DB: “One of the hottest players at the moment is Jean-Matteo Bahoya. He joined the French second layer a year and a half ago for € 8 million (£ 6.8 million), but then he didn't play that much.
“This season, however, he developed very quickly and scored his first two goals for Frankfurt. He also became the first Bundesliga player who clocked more than 37 km/h (23 MPH).
“He is a right winger, and he is the man to look forward to. 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 is counterattacks 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 it last season, but it didn't work so well.
“Now they went back to that high-speed team and since then they have been increasingly dangerous.”
Can an ex-Chelsea striker chase?
Michy Batshuayi is a player at Frankfurt who played in the Premier League. The former Striker of Chelsea and Crystal Palace joined Frankfurt in the winter transfer window from Galatasaray, and the 31-year-old Belgium International has scored two goals in seven performances in all competitions.
DB: “Batshuayi was a Marmoush replacement as a player who could fit immediately.
“They are a bit happy with him because they didn't think he would come in and score 15 goals in the second half of the season – he is a rotation player who comes in, not a core player for them.
“He gives them some physicality and some presence in the box. He adds another part to the attacking game because he is a little more powerful. He can keep the balls and hold a few seconds until the rest of the team comes to him.”
But there is also the potential that Frankfurt is being stabbed by Tottenham Forward Mathys Tel, which they aimed in January before the teenager of Bayern Munich was on loan.
DB: “Frankfurt wanted to take Mathys Tel with us as a replacement for Marmoush. In an interview with Toppmoller last week, he was very open and confirmed that he likes him.
“Toppmoller also trained him when he was the assistant at Bayern a few years ago. He wanted to take him to Frankfurt, but they couldn't do it.”
'Spurs are confronted with one of the best atmosphere in Germany'
A red-hot 58,000 capacity Deutsche Bank Park is waiting for Tottenham for the second stage of next Thursday in Germany, so will that be the cemetery for the season of Spurs?
DB: “It is one of the best and most fired atmosphere in Germany. If Tottenham is not good at dealing with such atmospheres, it will be a chance for Toppmoller's side.
“Frankfurt is in the up. If they can play at their highest level, they have an advantage, and I would say that Frankfurt will go into the semi -final.
“But they are not as consistent as in the first half of the season, so that can be a factor in Frankfurt that we will see. But I would say they have the advantage.”
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