Postecoglou sticking around ‘a little longer’ as Spurs show fight in Frankfurt

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou took aim at his critics after beating Eintracht Frankfurt to reach the Europa League semi-finals and keep dreams of ending the club’s 17-year trophy drought alive.

Spurs battled to a 1-0 win in Germany on Thursday to progress past the 2022 Europa League winners, who sit third in the Bundesliga, 2-1 on aggregate.

Tottenham are now big favourites to reach the final as they face Norway’s Bodo/Glimt in the last four.

Postecoglou’s job was on the line in Frankfurt with rumours he could be sacked as early as Friday had Tottenham bowed out.

They sit 15th in the Premier League after losing 17 of their 32 games in a dreadful domestic season.

“If people think us winning tonight (Thursday) makes me a better manager or whoever thinks I wasn’t doing a good job yesterday, (they) should be feeling the same way,” said Postecoglou.

“I don’t care, it doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t affect what I do. For me, it’s always about the dressing room. Do the players believe? Do the staff believe? That’s much more important than what others may make of me.

“So, unfortunately for a lot of you (the media), you’re going to have to put up with me for a little bit longer, mate, so let’s see how that goes.”

Only runaway leaders Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle have scored more Premier League goals this season than the 60 netted by Spurs.

But it is a dreadful defensive record that has consistently undone Postecoglou’s men.

The Australian has not been helped by a lengthy injury list.

Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and first-choice centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were absent for months but produced a huge performance when their manager needed it to shut out Frankfurt.

Record signing Dominic Solanke, who was also sidelined in January and February, scored the only goal from the penalty spot.

And Posteocglou believes with all his key men back fit, Spurs can go on to win their first trophy since 2008.

“In such a big game, they delivered a performance and it means we’re through to a semi-final,” he added.

“From our perspective we’ve had a difficult season and I think there’s some reasoning behind that.

“At times we’ve been missing Vicario, Romero, Van de Ven, (Rodrigo) Bentancur, Solanke, all of them we’ve been missing at different times this year.

“We’ve got the whole group. It’s not just them, it’s the whole group together. We know that we can be a team that’s pretty compelling against anybody.

“We’re in the final four now so we’ve given ourselves a chance.”