Micky van de Ven backs Tottenham to build on draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt | OneFootball

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Micky van de Ven has backed Tottenham to build on the positives of Thursday’s 1-1 draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt and progress into the Europa League semi-finals.

Spurs will head to Germany for next week’s last-eight second leg with the tie finely poised after they spurned a succession of second-half chances following Pedro Porro’s brilliant 26th-minute leveller.

Tottenham, who are 14th in the Premier League after a torrid domestic campaign, started poorly and conceded after six minutes to Hugo Ekitike’s impressive 22-yard strike, but regrouped to produce one of their best displays in recent months.

It failed to earn a precious first-leg advantage as Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur hit the crossbar, while Son Heung-min and James Maddison were denied by Frankfurt’s back-up goalkeeper Kaua Santos during a dazzling four-minute spell before Van de Ven was denied at the death.

Ange Postecoglou joked post-match the “football gods” were this season against Tottenham, who are braced for an intimidating atmosphere at Deutsche Bank Park.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a tough game and it’s a tough place to go, but if you see what we show, how we dominate, yeah we have the confidence to go there and win,” Van de Ven said.

“I think we could win this game and we can take all the positive things into next week.

“Of course we know it’s going to be tough, but it was a good game from our side, I think we deserve the win also but it’s 1-1 and we need to go win next week.”

A slick counter-attack finished off by Ekitike could have sparked a Tottenham collapse, but Porro equalised when he back-heeled in from Maddison’s fine cut-back.

It helped Spurs kick on to produce a stronger display after the break and with Dejan Kulusevski a potential option for Postecoglou in Germany, after a six-week lay-off with a foot problem, Van de Ven retains optimism.

He added: “An unbelievable finish from Pedro and an unbelievable team goal I would say.

“I think we deserve more. Even the second half, we created so many chances and we have to go again next week and take all these positive things.

“It’s really good to have the whole team back. Of course you can see when everybody is fit what kind of team we are and the kind of football we can play.

“Hopefully everyone stays fit now and we go again next week.”