Tottenham are potentially 90 minutes away from securing a place in the semi-finals of the Europa League. Ange Postecoglou’s side play Eintracht Frankfurt in the second leg of their quarter-final tie on Thursday evening with the score locked at 1-1.
Tottenham did have chances to win last Thursday’s first-leg encounter, but Brennan Johnson passed up a good opportunity late on while both Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur struck the crossbar. The Bundesliga club are now favourites to progress to the final four of the competition given they are on home soil for the deciding leg, but Postecoglou and Spurs will be out to ensure that is not the case.

The winner of Thursday’s tie at Deutsche Bank Park will play either Lazio or Bodo/Glimt for a place in the final. Bodo/Glimt lead 2-0 from the first leg in Norway and now they have to try and hold on to their two-goal advantage when they visit Rome.

Tottenham head into Thursday’s game with Radu Dragusin and Son Heung-min the only players in the treatment room right now. In training footage released by the club on Tuesday, Wilson Odobert trained after his absence at Wolves and Kevin Danso was also back with his teammates after a month out with a hamstring issue.

The hope will be that Postecoglou has all his players available apart from long-term absentee Dragusin if Spurs are to secure a semi-final berth. As things stand right now, three Tottenham players could miss a potential semi-final clash through suspension.

Under Europa League regulations, any player who picks up three yellow cards, or any subsequent odd-numbered caution (fifth, seventh, ninth, etc.), are suspended for the next competition match. Tottenham are already well aware of this as Bentancur missed the round of 16 second leg tie against AZ Alkmaar after seeing yellow in the first game in the Netherlands.

Bergvall, Yves Bissouma and Dejan Kulusevski are currently on two bookings apiece and are one yellow card away from receiving a one-match ban. Dragusin is another Spurs star on two yellow cards in Europe but he cannot obtain a suspension as he is out for the remainder of the season through injury and no longer in Spurs’ European squad as a result.

Yellow cards are not wiped out until the conclusion of the quarter-final stage, meaning the three players in question have to try and avoid a caution in Frankfurt. Article 63.04 in UEFA’s Europa League rules stipulates: “Exceptionally, all yellow cards and pending yellow-card suspensions expire on completion of the play-offs. They are not carried forward to the league phase. In addition, all yellow cards expire on completion of the quarter-finals. They are not carried forward to the semi-finals.”
Amid confusion that players would escape a one-match ban for the first leg of a prospective semi-final given yellow cards are wiped out after the quarter-finals, they would indeed still serve a one-match ban if they are cautioned for a third time in the competition. This is because they would have picked up three yellow cards prior to the completion of the quarter-final ties, meaning a one-match ban would be given as punishment.

If they do not receive yellow cards then the slate is effectively wiped clean for the semi-finals as their bookings would not be carried forward. As yellow cards expire on completion of the quarter-finals, a player cannot be suspended for the final even if they are cautioned in both legs of a victorious semi-final tie. The only way they could be banned for the Europa League final is if they were to receive a red card in the semi-final second leg or if they were dismissed for violent conduct in the first leg.