Tottenham v Eintracht Frankfurt: Odds-on Spurs to grind out the win

Tottenham v Eintracht Frankfurt
Wednesday 12 October, 20:00 kick-off
Live on BT Sport 3

Spurs in touch at halfway

It's an even won one, lost one and drawn one record at the halfway stage of the group for Tottenham, following a pretty dull 0-0 in Frankfurt last week, so a home win would be a huge step forward with a home game with Sporting and trip to Marseille left to play.

Spurs haven't won in five games against German sides, and have lost four of their last six at home - although those Dortmund, Bayern and Leverkusen sides were better than Frankfurt, and Spurs also have more European quality this season.

They did well to deal with the sad death of coach Gian Piero Ventrone during an emotional 1-0 at Brighton at the weekend.

So, Antonio Conte will expect a win here but it's not been easy so far in the competition having drawn blanks in their last two outings - and he's by no means a specialist in the Champions League.

He's got the second-worst win percentage of the 18 Italian managers to have taken charge of 10 games or more in the competition.

Spurs have nine wins in 11 home group stage games in this competition though, and although it's likely to be a grind they'll back themselves to grab a valuable three points.

Eintracht eager to extend English record

Eintracht Frankfurt have actually won on their last two trips to England, both in London against Arsenal and West Ham - but they suffered their first away defeat of the season on Saturday with a bad 3-0 reverse at Bochum.

Oliver Glasner's Europa League Champions are unbeaten in their last six European away days and will be a dangerous counter-attacking opponent for Spurs, if they can find their shooting boots.

They've failed to score in four of their last seven games in all competitions and although they should keep things tight, you'd imagine they'd need at least one to get anything from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Goals could be a struggle

Given how both sides have been struggling in front of goal it's a tad surprising to see under 2.5 goals priced at 5/4 as the outsider of the two.

Overs has only hit twice in the six Group D games so far, while both teams to score has only come in once in this section. It's 23/20 on one or both teams failing to score here.

Spurs are 1/2 for the home win with the visitors priced up as big 5/1 outsiders and the draw - which we got last week - weighing in at 7/2 and will have plenty of supporters.

It should be as tight as last week as neither side wants to lose this, and Conte would bite your hand off for a grinding 1-0 win similar to the one they achieved at Brighton.

The two just aren't clicking going forward yet in Europe - Spurs have scored just two in three games with Eintracht only bagging one from 37 attempts on goal.

Who could find the goal?

It may only take one goal to win this so if either time finds just a moment of clinical edge it could be enough - they combined pretty evenly for 23 shots but only three hit the target last week's 0-0.

Spurs have all the obvious dangers we know all about with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, but it was Richarlison who scored twice in their previous home tie against Sporting.

Croatian Ivan Perisic has scored and won against in two games for two different clubs against Eintracht Frankfurt, so it'd be some treble if the made it a third.

I don't think either side will go at this gung-ho, but Spurs have that extra quality and are at home so a Tottenham win to nil at 9/5 looks the pick of the outright bets.

Kane has 20 Champions League goals in 27 games so even at odds-on to score he'll still find his way onto plenty of betting slips and find his way into plenty of Bet Builders.

Why not try this Bet Builder for Tottenham v Eintracht..

Back Spurs to win to nil & Kane to score

9/2

Spurs aren't firing properly yet but they can grind out performances and wins and I'd expect them to pinch this one in a low-scoring affair - but it won't be easy.