The best and worst player from Tottenham's 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt | OneFootball

Tottenham and Eintracht Frankfurt played out a highly entertaining match in the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday night in North London, and after going down early, Spurs managed to find an equalizer before the end of the first half.

Despite hitting the post twice and giving Frankfurt keeper Kaua Santos a few tough saves to make, Tottenham were unable to find the breakthrough at home, leaving them with a whole lot to do on the road against one of German football's toughest sides.

Let's start with the bad. There are a couple of candidates to choose from, and I wasn't particularly enamored with the final ball Destiny Udogie displayed on the left flank. But the Italian fullback did get forward well enough. Brennan Johnson also had a poor display, missing a couple of great opportunities to score for Tottenham while providing little creative threat. But again, at least Johnson was getting into good positions.

Son Heung-min was an unequivocal flop

For me, Spurs worst performer of the day was also the player with the highest of expectations. This has been another down year for Son Heun-min, who started the season brightly but faded fast. Son had glimpses of the quality that has made him one of the best Premier League players of this era, but, again, he was left wanting.

Although Son created a couple of chances for his teammates, you'd expect the best player on Spurs and one of the best players in Europe to be more impactful on a stage like this one. At home in the quarterfinals with his team needing a goal, Son went invisible in the second half. He didn't take any sort of impetus to score goals when Tottenham literally have a more well-rounded striker who is supposed to help facilitate Son being the primary scorer off the flank, much like Mohamed Salah is on the right side for league leaders Liverpool.

Son and Johnson were probably as disappointing as each other in the Tottenham attack, and, come to think of it, Dominic Solanke didn't have a particularly impressive day at the office either. But for what is expected of him, Son offered the least.

On the flip side, there were a handful of solid performances within the Tottenham ranks, and young midfielder Lucas Bergvall and center back Micky van de Ven deserve shoutouts, as does goal-scorer Pedro Porro.

Tottenham would have lost without Rodrigo Bentancur

But all-around, center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur had the most important day. He really rose to the occasion against Eintracht Frankfurt's counter-happy offense, proving to be the shielding stalwart Spurs needed in the middle of the park with four tackles and four interceptions.

Bentancur nearly scored in the second half with a brilliant header, and he did his best work in the second half, especially when it came to trying to push forward to score that go-ahead goal. If the attackers showed more initiative and matched the work rate displayed by Bergvall and Bentancur in midfield, then perhaps Tottenham would have went into the second leg with a lead over Frankfurt.

The Uruguayan showed up well as a progressor and was accurate with his passing. But Bentancur's real calling card on Thursday night was his defensive work, and that shouldn't go underrated. Even though Tottenham would have wanted a home win in this Europa League battle, at least they didn't put themselves behind the eight ball. Bentancur played a key role in that effort.