Tottenham left with work to do as home leg of Europa League tie ends all square

Tottenham have work to do to reach the Europa League semi-finals after they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of their last-eight tie.

Ange Postecoglou watched Spurs go behind after six minutes through Hugo Ekitike’s fine long-range strike, but Pedro Porro pulled them level midway through the first half with a sumptuous back-heel finish.

The Premier League outfit upped the ante after the break with Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur hitting the woodwork, while Frankfurt’s back-up goalkeeper Kaua Santos produced crucial saves to deny Son Heung-min, James Maddison and Micky van de Ven to leave the tie finely-poised ahead of next Thursday’s second leg in Germany.

This was Tottenham’s first European quarter-final since 2019, but a torrid domestic campaign meant it was another two-legged tie built up as make-or-break for Postecoglou, who stated on Wednesday the “general sentiment” was that even winning this competition may not save his job.

Spurs’ bid to make the last four got off to the worst possible start when Frankfurt delighted their bouncing travelling fans with a sixth-minute goal.

After Maddison lost possession to Ellyes Skhiri, the visitors produced a slick counter-attack and Ekitike cut inside Porro before arrowing a 22-yard effort into the bottom corner for his 20th goal of the season.

The hosts had to survive two corners in quick succession shortly afterwards, but did begin to regroup with two dangerous crosses by Son and Dominic Solanke enough to get the home supporters briefly off their feet.

A goal was required to light the touchpaper for Tottenham and an unlikely source provided it in the 26th minute.

Son and Solanke initially combined before the latter found Maddison,