Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HEUNG AT HEART
Son’s at the centre of another supershow as Spurs eye the last eight
THE hallmark of Tottenham’s season will be their fearless spirit.
You write this team off at your peril because if they started this tie as underdogs then they emerged from their most impressive win this season as red-hot favourites.
Tottenham were magnificent, their swashbuckling secondhalf performance completely overwhelmed Borussia Dortmund and they are surely on course for the quarter-finals. Once again, it was Heung-min Son who popped up as the hero to score the opening goal to completely change the momentum at Wembley.
By the time Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente scored late goals, there was only ever going to be one winner.
And no-one should underestimate the scale of Tottenham’s achievement as they were disciplined, strong and determined to overcome the Bundesliga leaders.
They were irresistible after the break and Son has made himself indispensable – he should be on the shortlist for Player of the Year nominations.
Incredibly, he has scored nine goals in 10 games against Borussia Dortmund for former clubs Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen and now Tottenham.
But this was also about Son delivering when Tottenham needed him most because they had been second-best against Dortmund, given the runaround by jet-heeled England starlet Jadon Sancho in the first half. However, from the moment Son scored two minutes after the restart, the momentum shifted in Tottenham’s favour on the night and over the course of the tie. They will go to Germany in three weeks’ time believing they can reach the last eight which is no small feat when you consider what they have been up against this season.
This Champions League campaign had looked over before it had barely begun in the Group stage as they lost two and drew the other of their opening three games.
They could have given up the ghost in the Premier League title race after Harry Kane and Dele Alli were ruled out through injury but both
England stars are on course to return for the second leg.
And of course it has been Son who has stepped into the void since returning from the Asian Cup to score in his fourth game running to keep their season very much alive.
From what looked like a crisis a few weeks ago as they crashed out of both domestic cups, Mauricio Pochettino (left) has turned it around. He even did that again last night.
Christian Eriksen and Lucas were involved in the build-up before Vertonghen’s superb leftwing cross picked out Son. He peeled off Dan-axel Zagadou in the middle, to make space and side-foot the ball past Dortmund keeper Roman Burki.
Tottenham’s second came after 83 minutes, as Serge Aurier’s cross found Vertonghen who was rushing in at the back post to fire home.
Four minutes later, Eriksen’s corner was flicked home by Llorente who has come on as a substitute 34 times but this was the first time he has scored. Everything must be going Spurs’ way.