Thumbs up: Ange Postecoglou’s side kept their season alive
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Ange Postecoglou is confident Tottenham will benefit from the Europa League schedule, which leaves a month before the quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Spurs booked their place in the last-eight, and in doing so kept their season alive, with a 3-2 aggregate win over AZ Alkmaar, overturning a first-leg deficit.
Goals from Wilson Odobert and James Maddison in north London put Spurs in front in the tie for the first time, but Peer Koopmeiners took advantage of an error from the hosts at the back to level it up.
Odobert, though, restored Spurs’ advantage, finishing off a brilliant team move for his second goal of the night, and Postecoglou’s side then survived some late pressure to hold on.
They will now host Frankfurt in the first leg of their last-eight tie on April 10 and with the likes of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke only recently returning from injury, the Spurs boss is grateful for the extra time to get some key players up to speed.
“With European football, what you do know is home or away they’re going to be tight games,” Postecoglou said.
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“There’s so much on the line, obviously a semi-final up for grabs. The good thing for us is it’s almost a month away, which allows us to just get some more legs and work up some of our guys to full fitness.
“That time will be very valuable.”
This was the first time since October that Spurs went into a game with Guglielmo Vicario, Heung-min Son, Maddison and Romero all in the starting lineup, and they were much-improved from the performances seen in recent weeks.
The easing injury list also allowed Postecoglou to turn to the likes of Brennan Johnson and Archie Gray off the bench, while Mathys Tel was an unused substitute.
“That’s why they’re here, they’re quality players,” Postecoglou said of his returning stars. “We just haven’t had them at our disposal.
“Romero, Micky make such a big difference to us. You saw Wilson, we’ve hardly him this year. What a super talent he is.
“Guys like Lucas [Bergvall] and Pape [Matar Sarr] are growing all the time. And we could players on that could make a difference, which also is kind of what you need in this tournament.”