Tottenham 3-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Player ratings as Spurs secure comeback win
By Sean Walsh
From Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - Tottenham came from a goal down to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 on a chaotic night of Champions League football.
Spurs moved to the top of Group D with two games left to play following Marseille's impressive victory at previous leaders Sporting CP, who visit north London in a fortnight.
Despite a shaky opening couple of minutes, Frankfurt carved out the first half-chance when a Jesper Lindstrom cross was sliced by Daichi Kamada, though replays suggested any goal may have been ruled out for a foul on Ryan Sessegnon in the build up.
That sight of goal seemed to spook Spurs, who were then pressed into several errors and were lucky not to have gifted their visitors any immediate further sights of goal.
An early period of nonsenses nearly peaked when a high-arcing cross from Sessegnon was headed wide from yards out by Richarlison with half the crowd thinking he'd scored, though the Brazilian was judged to have fouled Kevin Trapp anyway.
But Frankfurt took a 14th-minute lead when Eric Dier was robbed of the ball by Lindstrom, whose low cross was beaten away by Hugo Lloris but straight into the path of Sebastian Rode, and he squared it to Daichi Kamada to tap into an empty net.
Tottenham weren't behind for long though as Son Heung-min levelled the scores five minutes later, racing in behind a high Frankfurt line and meeting a perfectly-weighted through ball from Harry Kane and slotting past Trapp.
Spurs were then awarded a penalty following a VAR check when Kane managed to dribble his way past three defenders before being slammed to the floor by Kristijan Jakic. The England skipper stepped up and fired past Trapp to put the hosts ahead.
Lloris was forced into a low save at his near post to deny Lindstrom after the Dane quickly took a fierce shot from a tight angle sought to find an equaliser, while Trapp was in similar action to keep Son out at the end of a swift Spurs breakaway.
But the German stopper was powerless to stop the South Korean moments later as he emphatically volleyed in a Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg cross.
Son was denied a first-half hat-trick after meeting a pass in behind from Sessegnon, though this time he was thwarted by the toe of Trapp.
Cristian Romero nearly opened his account for the season with the final touch of the first half, but Trapp was at full stretch to tip his header away.
Sessegnon came close to scoring just seconds after the restart after being played in by Kane, but the wing-back slipped when cutting onto his right foot and Frankfurt escaped on that occasion.
The former Fulham man was in the thick of it once more once Richarlison beat off the challenge of Evan N'Dicka and rolled the ball to the far post, but Trapp again came to Frankfurt's rescue to keep Sessegnon out.
Frankfurt were reduced to ten men after Tuta picked up two yellow cards for man-handling Son twice in the space of three minutes (though the referee didn't initially realise until checking his notebook that it was the same player picking up the bookings).
Nevertheless, the Bundesliga side came closest to scoring the next goal when Lindstrom weaved his way into the area, bringing Lloris into a top save.
Spurs' waning concentration was punished as Frankfurt pulled one back late on through Faride Alidou to set up a nervy finish, though Tottenham won another penalty at the very beginning of stoppage time when Bryan Gil was tripped by Hrvoe Smolcic.
However, Kane fluffed his lines and skied the spot kick to bring tension racing back to the surface, and matters weren't helped when he then blasted a simple cross over the top of the diminutive Gil.
Alidou brought Lloris into one last save as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium breathed a collective sigh of relief and secured the win.
1. Tottenham Hotspur (3-4-3)
GK: Hugo Lloris - 6/10 - Could probably have done better with the opener but at least he tried to deal with it. Made some impressive stops.
CB: Cristian Romero - 6/10 - A standard evening for Romero, calmly winning back possession and calmly, if ungraciously, advancing the ball.
CB: Eric Dier - 3/10 - A nightmare opening 14 minutes was compounded when a loose touch eventually led to Frankfurt's opener. Distribution was way off.
CB: Clement Lenglet - 7/10 - The Frenchman's range of passing helped Spurs play direct and carve out openings.
RM: Emerson Royal - 5/10 - Returned to the side due to his domestic suspension. Should probably have stayed out of the team. Usually unimpressive at both ends of the pitch but got some fans back onside with some crunching tackles late in the day.
CM: Rodrigo Bentancur - 6/10 - Picked up a yellow for a cynical foul but was otherwise a calm head in midfield.
CM: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg - 9/10 - Bulldozed his way through midfield with little hassle and grabbed a peach of an assist for Son.
LM: Ryan Sessegnon - 7/10 - Gave Frankfurt several problems and was solid defensively.
RF: Richarlison - 6/10 - Battled hard with N'Dicka and usually got the better of him. Wasn't always easy on the eye but he was effective.
LF: Son Heung-min - 9/10 - Scored twice but noticeably looked quicker and fitter than he has in months.
CF: Harry Kane - 8/10 - Similarly appeared much fitter and stronger, pulling Frankfurt apart with his hold-up and link-up.
Manager: Antonio Conte - 7/10 - Frankfurt played exactly how Conte had hoped and his side were able to manipulate them for much of the evening.
SUB: Oliver Skipp (67' for Richarlison) - 5/10
SUB: Yves Bissouma (67' for Bentancur) - 5/10
SUB: Davinson Sanchez (78' for Dier) - 6/10
SUB: Lucas Moura (85' for Son) - 5/10
SUB: Bryan Gil (85' for Hojbjerg) - 6/10
2. Eintracht Frankfurt (3-4-3)
GK: Kevin Trapp (7); CB: Tuta (1), CB: Makoto Hasebe (3), CB: Evan N'Dicka (4); RM: Kristijan Jakic (2); CM: Sebastian Rode (6), CM: Djibril Sow (4); LM: Christopher Lenz (4); RF: Jesper Lindstrom (6); LF: Daichi Kamada (6); CF: Randal Kolo Muani (3)
Substitutes: Faride Alidou (6), Rafael Borre (3), Junior Dina Eric Ebimbe (4), Hrvoe Smolcic (2), Mario Gotze (4)
Manager: Oliver Glasner - 3/10