Spurs avoided the Europa League play-off round and made it to the knock-out phase of the competition, despite being plagued with injuries for over three months. Here is a summary of their success in the 6 remaining games before they meet Manchester United in this week's final in Bilbao:-
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
ROUND OF 16 (1st leg)
THURSDAY 6TH MARCH, 2025
AZ ALKMAAR 1(1) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0(0)
AZ scorers:-
Bergvall (o.g.), 18
This was not a game of two halves, but a tie of two legs. Spurs lost this game because of an unfortunate own goal by Lucas Bergvall, but the margin could easily have been greater. Ex-Spur Troy Parrott had a glorious one-on-one chance only to be thwarted by Vicario's left heel. Indeed, Vicario was the busier of the two keepers, and Spurs had to defend a goalmouth scramble desperately.
Owusu-Oduro in the AZ goal was hardly tested. I can confidently say he had no serious test in the first half. Spurs had now lost 18 of their 43 games in all competitions this season. With or without injuries they can produce bad performances, and this was one of their worst of the season....
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
ROUND OF 16 (2nd leg)
THURSDAY 13TH MARCH, 2025
8PM
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3(1) AZ ALKMAAR 1(0)
(Spurs won 3-2 on aggregate)
Spurs scorers:-
Odobert, 26, 74
Maddison, 48
AZ scorer:-
Koopmeiners, 63
Thanks to Greg Smith for this picture
Perhaps Ange Postecoglou has been building towards this night for ages. For the first time since 8th December, he was able to start Romero and Van de Ven together. His "leadership team" of Vicario, Romero, Maddison, and Son hadn't started together since the 4-1 win over West Ham on 19th October. That was 33 games ago!
It's been a long hard winter, and this win was not easy, as we began one down and faced a team for whom this was also a win or bust game. Spurs played very positive football, with few blemishes and earned their place in April's quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt who had earlier disposed of Ajax.
Wilson Odobert, who has also missed so much of the season, scored his first two Spurs goals, and indeed his first European goals. Wilson's second came at the end of a great team move and finally took the wind out of the Dutch AZ Alkmaar's sails.......
EUROPA LEAGUE
QUARTER-FINAL (1ST LEG)
THURSDAY 10TH APRIL, 2025
(8PM)
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1(1) EINTRACHT FRANKFURT 1(1)
Spurs scorer:-
Pedro Porro, 26
Eintracht scorer:-
Ekitike, 6
Spurs fell to an early goal by Eintracht Frankfurt's current top scorer Hugo Ekitike and equalised with an excellent Pedro Porro goal (his first club goal in Europe). Early in the second half, in a ten minute blitz, we hit the woodwork twice and goalkeeper Kaua Santos made some excellent saves to deny Spurs a deserved win.
As expected, Micky van de Ven returned, and his pace, coupled with defensive skills was to the fore.....
EUROPA LEAGUE
QUARTER-FINAL (2nd LEG)
THURSDAY 17TH APRIL, 2025
(8PM - BST)
EINTRACHT FRANKFURT 0(0) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1(1)
(Spurs won 2-1 on aggregate)
Spurs scorer:-
Solanke, 43 (pen)
Thanks to Eugene Gasper for this picture
Ange Postecoglou's second season trophy dream is on! Spurs gave their loyal travelling fans surely their best away performance of this European season in a game where the end to end style continued from last week's drawn first leg.
Spurs secured a first half lead through a Dominic Solanke penalty after James Maddison had been clattered by Frankfurt goalkeeper Kaua Santos. Fielding his first choice back five for only the second time since early December, "Big Ange's" men gave us a stalwart second half defensive performance to secure a semi-final place against Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt, who beat Lazio in Rome in a penalty shoot-out.
Thursday 1 May 2025, 8:00pm
Europa League Semi-Final, First Leg
Tottenham Hotspur (2) 3 FK Bodo/Glimt (0) 1
Spurs scorers:-
Johnson, 1
Maddison, 34
Solanke, 61 (pen)
Bodo/Glimt scorer:-
Saltnes, 83
Spurs dominated most of this match. With ten minutes remaining they
led 3-0 which would have been an almost insurmountable lead. However
two minutes later they conceded a goal against the run of play......
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
SEMI-FINAL (2nd Leg)
THURSDAY 8TH MAY, 2025
(8pm - BST)
BODO/GLIMT 0(0) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2(0)
(Spurs win 5-1 on aggregate)
Spurs scorer(s):-
Solanke, 63
Pedro Porro, 69
On the sixth anniversary of Pochettino's heroes and their win in Amsterdam, Ange Postecoglou's Spurs won their Europa League semi-final, giving Spurs passage to a sixth European Final. For the third time, they will be facing English opposition, as Manchester United beat the potential hosts 7-1 on aggregate. Postecoglou's second season trophy is on!
Despite the enforced absences of Son, Maddison and Bergvall through injury, Ange was able to field his first choice back five. This was a highly competent, controlled, and professional team performance. There was excellent play and commitment in every position. In particular I thought the back four, along with Bissouma and Bentancur gave solidity and a foundation to build upon. Both full backs gave a driving performance. Pedro Porro even scored an astounding goal to confirm the win, after Dominic Solanke had opened the scoring........
Thanks to Stuart Gibson for this picture
"Y Viva Espana! We're off to sunny Spain!" Let's hope we'll be bagging a trophy in Bilbao!
. The road to Bilbao - Part One - The 8-match League phase
