Postecoglou addresses Van de Ven concern and explains why he was waving frantically at Udogie

Ange Postecoglou believes the football gods have abandoned him and Tottenham Hotspur this season and if Spurs are to win in Germany next week then they will have to do it the hard way.

Fortune has certainly not favoured the north London outfit across this campaign but neither has their own inability to ruthlessly kill off matches. are the second highest scorers in the Premier League and joint-sixth highest in the Europa League - they are the competition's highest ever scorers with 336 goals - but that does not tell the whole story this season of the chances they've missed or the opportunities they've presented to their opponents.

This Europa League quarter-final first leg could have decided the tie for Tottenham. They responded well to conceding Hugo Ekitike's clinical low strike into the bottom right corner from outside the box just six minutes into the contest. had lost the ball in the Frankfurt half and the visitors swept up the pitch and took full advantage.

But conjured up a terrific equaliser on 26 minutes from a classic Postecoglou goal. A ball from Son Heung-min over the top found diagonal run. The striker turned and picked out Maddison who jinked past his man and played the ball across the six-yard box where Porro back-flicked it through the defender's legs and into the net with his heel.

"That's something we obviously work on, getting into those areas in the box in terms of the half-spaces. Madders we know is really creative and obviously Dom was the one who received it so there was a gap there at the near post," said . "We've always said that we need the next person in line to attack that area and Pedro happened to be that and it was an outstanding finish. If you look at it, Brennan is where he's meant to be, at the far post if the ball goes through, and Lucas on the edge of the box.

"It was a well worked goal and I think one we deserved definitely, but we had some fantastic moves in the second half. It's just that we weren't able to capitalise on them."

It was a beautifully-worked goal and Spurs were not done with the flowing moves and threw a flurry of punches during a second half spell that had Frankfurt on the ropes.

Lucas Bergvall inspired the spell with a pirouette between two opponents before driving a shot that cannoned back off the crossbar. An inch lower and it would have rocketed in off the left-hand post.

The moment of individual brilliance from the teenager brought a roar from the crowd and inspired his team-mates.

Son Heung-min curled an effort from inside the box that Frankfurt goalkeeper Kaua Santos pushed around his goal. From the resulting corner, Rodrigo Bentancur powered a header on to the same part of the crossbar that Bergvall struck.

Soon after Maddison left a defender in his wake while cutting inside in the box and forcing Santos into a low save. Brennan Johnson later missed a chance that would have brought a carbon copy of his first goal against Southampton on Sunday, substitute Djed Spence again picking him out with a pull-back.

Then with almost the final touch of the game, Bentancur headed Porro's free-kick across the six-yard box to Micky van de Ven and the big Dutchman contrived to head the ball down against his own foot and up into the air where Santos tipped it over the crossbar with his fingertips.

"I'm resigned to the fact that the football gods have got their eyes elsewhere this year," said Postecoglou ruefully on that late moment. "They're obviously busy with other clubs and other managers so whatever we get we're going to have to do it without them this year."

At the other end of the pitch, while Spurs presented Frankfurt with the odd opening, Guglielmo Vicario had relatively very little to do other than picking the ball out of his net in that sixth minute. The Bundesliga outfit had only four efforts on goal, with two on target, compared to the hosts' 10 shots with six on target.

"I think it is exactly how we imagined it was going to be this quarter-final against Tottenham. We became a bit too passive," Frankfurt boss Dino Topmoller said after the game.

"Maybe the early goal was responsible and we sat back on our laurels but defensively we had a lot of things under control, Tottenham remained dangerous but we had their wingers under control.

"I think 1-1, it is a well earned draw for us and we know Tottenham took the lead in the second half and showed us exactly how strong they are in their attacking play and we did very well to resist.

"I think in brief we could say we’re very happy with the game, how it went, with the experience we had and the end result. We’ve laid a good basis for at home next week in front of a full house against Tottenham. We’re looking forward to it hugely."

It's unlikely that the German side will be as lacklustre going forward on their own soil but Postecoglou will at least have taken heart from two games in a row in which Spurs have started to get their attacking fluency in gear again, albeit without taking full advantage on Thursday evening.

"If we can repeat that next week, and there's no reason we can't, we'll give ourselves a good chance. I really felt like we overwhelmed them with our football, with our running and with our press," said the Tottenham head coach.

"It wasn't just the chances we created but the chances we almost created. It's going to be that sort of season. Nothing is going to come to us easy. We're going to have to go there and fight now to get what I thought we deserved tonight and that's what we'll try to do."

Postecoglou had needed to make two key selection decisions on the night. One was who played in the full-back slots and the other was who played on the right wing.

With the former he decided on Porro and Destiny Udogie, with Djed Spence facing a rare moment on the bench. There was understandable concern at Spence taking his turn on the sidelines as he's been one of Spurs' few in-form players in recent months.

However, Porro scored that excellent goal and Udogie was a driving force throughout in one of his best performances in a long while.

He won all four of his ground duels and made seven ball recoveries while completing two dribbles himself. The Italian ran himself into the ground and eventually fell to the floor late on, Postecoglou and his assistant Matt Wells frantically trying to ask him if he needed to come off from the other side of the pitch.

"Yeah he just got cramp," Postecoglou told football.london afterwards. "He was unbelievable today. I thought it was incredible the amount of running he did. His effectiveness. It was incredible. He was just cramping up. He will be fine."

Postecoglou's main frustration on the night appeared to come with the officials from Poland with incorrect decisions galore. Replays showed numerous corners or throws that clearly should have been given to Spurs and the occasional foul that went the wrong way.

The Spurs head coach could be seen holding his arms aloft at the referee in various moments, questioning what had just happened, before turning to the fourth official to try to get an answer.

After one late clearance out of play from a Frankfurt boot that bewilderingly was given as a goal kick to the visitors, Spurs substitute Mathys Tel - who had put in the cross - sprinted across the pitch to remonstrate with the referee Szymon Marciniak only to get a yellow card for his troubles.

On the pitch though, there were some positive signs for Postecoglou. His back four were solid enough on the whole, with Cristian Romero and getting more time together again in the centre of defence.

The Dutchman made six clearances, three headed clearances, three ball recoveries and two interceptions in a display more in keeping with his pre-injury performances. He did appear slightly hampered late on but Postecoglou thankfully explained that away as cramp.

"It’s really good to have the whole team back. Of course you can see when everybody is fit what kind of team we are and the kind of football we can play," Van de Ven told TNT Sport. "We played a really good game today, it’s really good to have everybody back and hopefully everyone stays fit now and we go again next week."

Romero's growing fitness was shown by the return of his raiding runs up and down the centre of the pitch that are both thrilling and terrifying in equal measure, the World Cup winner often remaining up the field as a second striker while others fill in for him.

creates chaos - both good and bad - with those runs but in truth he rarely knows what to do at the end of them. One slaloming dribble ended in the best case scenario, a corner for Tottenham, but it is the run itself that at least fires up his team-mates to similarly break the lines.

Rodrigo Bentancur was very good in covering for his fellow South American and the Uruguayan's energetic display brought the best defensive stats of anyone on the pitch with 10 ball recoveries, four interceptions and one clearance. He also won seven of his 11 ground duels.

Bergvall continued to bely his tender years with a tidy, driving display that brought six ball recoveries, two interceptions and that electrifying run and shot.

"He was great but the whole team was," said Postecoglou of the 19-year-old. "I thought Rodri was outstanding. Both full-backs defensively and with the ball were really causing problems. Cuti and Micky handled their front threats really well apart from the goal we conceded which was the only disappointing bit.

"The front three were working with Madders and were really creative. You can’t ask any more from the lads than what the lads did, especially in that second half to create that many chances. We don’t get the win but I can’t ask any more from the players."

There were still some issues in attack though. Solanke continues to battle away but again fed on scraps on service. His run in the build-up to Porro's goal was key but too much of his play is selfless.

The 27-year-old has 19 goal involvements in 36 games but without scoring a goal since returning from his knee injury, it means the England international has not hit the back of the net since January 4 against Newcastle. Solanke needs and deserves more than that in a team that has scored so many goals around him.

Brennan Johnson played the full encounter but failed to make anywhere near the impact he did on Sunday against Southampton. Son, aside from his pass to find Solanke for Porro's goal and a curling shot that was well saved by Santos, struggled to find much space to exploit.

"I think we managed to keep Son fairly under control," said Toppmoller. "He didn’t manage to make his runs inside. It wasn’t just him but the whole team on our side has grown from this experience today."

Postecoglou waited late to make changes during the game and the Australian explained that it was because he felt the players on the pitch were in a good place.

"I thought we were well in control, well on top and we were creating chances. It was in the back of my mind that on that left-hand side, I knew the boys had worked really hard, with guys like Mathys, Djed and Pape coming on, we could really go at them," he said.

"They almost pulled off an unbelievable move again when Mathys played it to Djed and Djed to Brennan and it was a carbon copy of the weekend but it went over the bar."

Spurs will need to score in Germany, they will likely need to do so more than once because Deutsche Bank Park is an intimidating stadium which will be incredibly noisy next Thursday night and on the whole this season Frankfurt have done well there.

One crumb of comfort though from recent form for Tottenham to take is that the Bundesliga side have lost two of their past three matches inside the stadium since the beginning of March, but Postecoglou's men will have to be far better away from home in a European venue than they have been throughout this season.

They have often crumbled amid the noise on their continental travels during this campaign and if ever there was a time to stand up amid the increased decibels then Thursday night is that moment.

The return of Dejan Kulusevski would be a boost and Postecoglou admitted that it will be a close call on both the Swede and centre-back Kevin Danso.

"Touch and go. The idea with Deki and Kevin is they are due to start training with the team probably, if not the end of this week, tomorrow, then early next week," he said. "I don’t think they are a possibility to start but Kulusevski has a chance to be involved."

Having the creative midfielder back, with his ability to unlock stubborn defences and never-say-die spirit, would be a huge boost to Tottenham just when they need it the most and if there's a game that both Kulusevski and the club will be pushing for him to be involved in, it's the showdown in Frankfurt.

First up, Spurs must get past Wolves in a Premier League match that has rarely brought much joy for the north London side. Tottenham have not won at Molineux since 2021 and have not beaten the West Midlands side home or away since 2022, losing three of their past four meetings.

Vitor Pereira's side are in good form as well, having won five of their recent eight Premier League matches, including their past three fixtures to push themselves 12 points clear of the drop zone. A win against Spurs would bring them to within two points of Postecoglou's side.

If Tottenham retain any hopes of finishing in the top half of the table then they will need to win at Molineux and Postecoglou will likely rotate his squad for the game, which will bring fresh legs but a loss in coordination.

Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr, Yves Bissouma, Ben Davies, Mathys Tel and potentially Archie Gray could all come into the team, while Wilson Odobert may also start if fully fit. It was noticeable that amid speculation over an injury, the young French winger was not brought on during Thursday night's draw despite Postecoglou's belief in him to change games.

In truth, while a positive display in Sunday's game would be helpful in getting more minutes into players and increasing the morale further after a better week at the club which has continued to prove the players are still playing for Postecoglou, all eyes will be on that second leg in Germany because it's the only path to saving Spurs' season.

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