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Bayern Munich have confirmed that defensive midfielder João Palhinha will join Tottenham Hotspur on loan for the 2025/26 campaign, with the English Premier League side holding an option to make the move a permanent one.

Palhinha joined Bayern from Fulham in July 2024, but a combination of injuries and head coach Vincent Kompany's midfield personnel preferences restricted the 30-year-old to just 24 competitive appearances last season, of which only nine were starts.

"João Palhinha unfortunately didn’t get the playing time he had hoped for at Bayern last season," said board member for sport Max Eberl.

"In Tottenham Hotspur, we’ve found the best solution for all parties. João will be able to play an entire season there at the highest level level. We wish him all the best for the upcoming campaign."

Prior to making the switch to Bavaria, Palhinha won the Primeira Liga, two Taças da Liga and the Portuguese Super Cup with Sporting CP, having also lifted the league cup with SC Braga in his native Portugal. Following that he joined London-based outfit Fulham, where he made 79 appearances, scoring eight goals.

For his country, Palhinha has 34 total caps and two goals to his name. Having starred at UEFA Euro 2020, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2024, the midfielder was part of the Portugal that recently won the UEFA Nations League in June, beating Spain on penalties.

It's crunch time for Eintracht Frankfurt in their UEFA Europa League quarter-final tie against English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. bundesliga.com has five reasons the Eagles can fly past their London-based rivals and into the tournament's last four...

Follow Thursday's first leg here!

They may have suffered the odd blip here and there this term but, by and large, this has been a record-breaking season for Eintracht. Currently chasing a UEFA Champions League finish in the Bundesliga, Dino Toppmöller's men have been rubbing shoulders with leaders Bayern Munich and defending champions Bayer Leverkusen in the standings for most of the campaign.

Among this season's notable numbers are Frankfurt's seven-game unbeaten sequence to start the calendar year - a first under their current coach - and their 55 league goals scored (the division's third-best tally after 28 games). They've also already won more Bundesliga games this term than they managed in the entire 2023/24 campaign.

Frankfurt's energetic, youthful squad is the envy of Europe right now, and the club's young guns have the numbers to back up their impressive status. From the likes of Germany U21 defenders Nathaniel Brown and Nnamdi Collins to Can Uzun, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, Elye Wahi and star striker Hugo Ekitiké, Frankfurt have effervescent talent in abundance across the park. The collective pace and enthusiasm mark Eintracht out as one of the best teams in Europe in terms of transition play, and Toppmöller will look to use this tactic in particular to try and unsettle Tottenham.

With 29 of their goals scored by 10 players under the age of 23, only Strasbourg of Ligue 1 can claim a better youth strike rate in Europe's top five leagues. Ekitiké ranks among the highest in the Bundesliga in terms of Expected Goals while Uzun - at 19 years and four months old - recently scored his fourth Bundesliga goal to revive memories of a club record set by Walter Bechtold back in 1965/66, the latter becoming the youngest at Eintracht to score six times in just 17 games, aged 18.

Watch: Turkey international Can Uzun is on the rise

Now a veteran of more than 300 Bundesliga appearances and 119 games in European competition, FIFA World Cup winner with Germany Mario Götze is still happily pulling the strings in midfield at the highest level. A scorer of two sublime goals in Eintracht's 4-1 second-leg victory against Ajax in the round of 16, the 32-year-old is showing that his talent and vision are still of the highest quality in the European game.

Having popped up in six positions for Frankfurt so far this season, the former Borussia Dortmund, Bayern and PSV Eindhoven schemer is a lesson in versatility while his eight goal involvements in 31 games across all competitions for Die Adler in 2024/25 mark him out as one to watch for Spurs, who will do well to contain Eintracht's game-changing attacker, a player still very much capable of unlocking any encounter with a moment of individual brilliance.

Watch: Super Mario Götze

Tottenham are two-time winners of the old UEFA Cup, with the Londoners last lifting the trophy in 1984. However, Eintracht's second triumph in this tournament came as recently as 2022, when the Eagles defeated Rangers in a penalty shootout in the Europa League showpiece in Seville. Several of the Frankfurt stars from that epic run are still with the Eintracht set-up, and it is just that tournament experience that can give the Bundesliga side the edge against Spurs this time around.

"For us, for Frankfurt, for the region - for the whole of Germany - I think it's a wonderful thing. It was the most intense experience of our lives for many of us," an elated Kevin Trapp said after that aforementioned win, the Germany international goalkeeper making crucial saves in extra-time and the penalty shootout against the Scottish giants at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.

"I'm just happy we did it and now we just want to celebrate with the fans," an equally thrilled Ansgar Knauff - also still a key member of the current Eintracht crop - added. "We knew that [Trapp] would make a save and the [fans] knew that, too. We did it - it's incredible," the 23-year-old added. Defender Tuta, along with back-up goalkeeper Jens Grahl and former USMNT international Timothy Chandler, are also still at Eintracht having been present in southern Spain for Frankfurt's trophy triumph in 2022.

Watch: Eintracht will be eager to repeat the celebrations that greeted their 2022 UEFA Europa League triumph

A crucial factor when the Europa League bracket was settled saw Eintracht gain home advantage for the second leg of of their quarter-final against Spurs. Deutsche Bank Park also played host to the second leg when Frankfurt swept aside Ajax in the round of 16 to make it four wins and a draw at home for the Eagles in this season's competition so far.

With no defeats in their own backyard and 11 goals scored in the Europa League in 2024/25, Eintracht, who are also one of the best home teams in the Bundesliga this term, will look to take a solid result at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the first leg on 10 April, before driving home the advantage of playing in front of their own passionate fans in the return leg a week later.

Determined to put in one more top European showing this term, trophy contenders Eintracht Frankfurt have what it takes to leave London with a positive result in their UEFA Europa League quarter-final first-leg against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday (kick-off: 9pm CEST).

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Having slotted six goals past Ajax in the round of 16, Eintracht are fuelling hope of a run to this season's final to mirror their achievement in the 2021/22 season, when the Eagles lifted the Europa League trophy for the second time in their history. If Dino Toppmöller's team enjoyed a solid run in the competition's newly formed league phase this season, their fifth-placed finish was only marginally bettered by Thursday's opponents Spurs, who ended one place and one point better off than Die Adler. A run of three wins on the bounce in all competitions for Frankfurt was checked by Saturday's 2-0 loss away to Werder Bremen, a setback that failed to alter Eintracht's third-placed standing in the Bundesliga. Frankfurt were without goalkeeper Kevin Trapp and Ansgar Knauff - both players to have featured in the team's 2022 European success - at the weekend while striker Hugo Ekitiké drew a rare blank. The French forward will be hoping to be back in form to trouble Tottenham this week, with Thursday's hosts also needing to watch out for the likes of Nathaniel Brown, Nnamdi Collins, Jean-Matteo Bahoya, Can Uzun and one of the continent's most exciting young sides. Kauã Santos is expected to start in goal.

Despite a disappointing domestic campaign, Tottenham's run in the Europa League took in just one loss in the league phase (against Galatasaray), while Ange Postecoglou's side also overcame Bundesliga opposition earlier in the competition with a 3-2 victory at Hoffenheim. Just like Eintracht, Spurs then also knocked out Dutch opponents in AZ Alkmaar to reach the last eight, and the North London team are now pinning their season hopes on a trophy they last lifted back in 1984. Former Augsburg defender Kevin Danso and Swedish midfielder Dejan Kulusevski remain touch and go for Thursday's encounter, but Djed Spence should be available again following illness. Micky van de Ven (once of Wolfsburg), Heung-min Son (formerly of Hamburg) and James Maddison are expected to play key roles against the Eagles, meanwhile, while Bayern Munich loanee Mathys Tel is also an option in attack for the English Premier League outfit.

Watch: Eintracht aiming high in season run-in

Match stats

Ekitiké is Frankfurt’s biggest attacking threat in 2024/25, with 19 goals and eight assists in all competitions.

Frankfurt have faced Spurs four times in Europe, winning and drawing one and losing two.

Eintracht won the 2021/22 Europa League without losing a single game. Indeed, they were unbeaten in a record-equalling 18 matches in the competition until defeat to Lyon in this season’s league phase.

London club West Ham United were among the teams Frankfurt beat on their way to lifting the trophy in 2021/22. They also won away to Arsenal in the 2019/20 edition, having gone out in the semi-finals on penalties to Chelsea the previous year.

Postecoglu has lost all four of his previous meetings with Bundesliga clubs as a head coach, falling home and away to RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen.

As well as Son and Tel, Van de Ven, Danso and Timo Werner have all played in the Bundesliga.

Probable teams

Tottenham: Vicario - Porro, Gray, Van de Ven, Spence - Sarr, Bentancur, Maddison - Johnson, Solanke, Son (c)

Out: Danso (thigh), Dragusin (knee)

Doubtful: Kulusevski (ankle)

Coach: Ange Postecoglou

Frankfurt: Santos - Kristensen, Koch (c), Tuta, Theate - Skhiri, Larsson - Collins, Götze, Bahoya - Ekitiké

Out: Chandler (thigh), Matanović (foot), Trapp (shin)

Doubtful: Knauff (knee), Wahi (knee)

Coach: Dino Toppmöller

LIVE blog!

VS

Spurs

Thu, 10.04 19:00

Frankfurt

Europa League

Quarter-final, first leg Quarter-final, first leg Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

From a young squad bursting with goals to the experience of 2022’s Europa League-winning team and a world champion in Mario Götze, here’s just five reasons why Eintracht will progress against Tottenham in this quarter-final…

© IMAGO/Harry Langer/DeFodi Images

Stumbling spurs

Ange Postecoglou's side sit in 14th in the Premier League, winning one of their last five. In Europe, however, they've only lost twice, winning six and drawing the other two games.

Previous meetings

Fixtures between these two sides are rare, with only four previous meetings between the two until now. Those games have resulted in two wins for Tottenham, one for Frankfurt and a draw in the other, with the most recent game coming in the 2022/23 Champions League season. Tottenham won an exciting 3-2 encounter on that occasion, with Daichi Kamada and Faride Alidou scoring for the Eagles.

Watch: Eintracht Frankurt on course for UEFA Champions League football

After finishing sixth last season, this exciting Frankfurt side have gone from strength to strength in 2024/25, blending the development of young stars such as Hugo Ekitiké, Nathaniel Brown and Can Uzun with exciting, winning football.

Soaring in Europe

Dino Toppmöller's side have lost just two of their 10 games so far in this competition, winning seven and drawing the remaining one. This accompanies an excellent campaign in the Bundesliga, where they sit in the Champions League places with just six games to go.

Bounce back

Eintracht Frankfurt come into this fixture in the back of a defeat to Werder Bremen, but remain in third with a two point gap between themselves and Mainz in fourth.

Watch: Werder Bremen 2-0 Eintracht Frankfurt - highlights

Romano Schmid scored one and made another as Werder Bremen took three important points on Matchday 28.

The international Klassiker

Fixtures between German and English clubs have been a staple of European competition down the years, with Bundesliga teams recording some excellent victories over their continental rivals. Take a trip down memory lane for some of the most famous German wins over English clubs. .

© imago sportfotodienst/imago sportfotodienst

And then there were three

From seven clubs in September, only three German teams remain in Europe this season. Find out how all the Bundesliga’s representatives have got on across the three continental competitions here.

© DFL

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