KANE CRACKS IT
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Spurs’ Wembley woe is over as Harry brace helps end the curse
MAuRICIo Pochettino knew the importance of this game. In Champions League Group H, this was Tottenham’s cup final.
They won it and, fittingly, at Wembley, too. If all goes as expected from here, Pochettino will have worked out that a draw in Dortmund on matchday five should as good as see Tottenham home.
Here is how Mystic Mauricio sees it unfolding. Real Madrid win the group — maybe six victories in six, or thereabouts. Apoel Nicosia are the chumps, played six, lost six in all likelihood. This leaves Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund duking it out for the second qualifying place. So a win in the home leg between the teams was essential.
And Tottenham did it. Against a weakened Dortmund side — and, yes, Tottenham were without Dele Alli but the Germans’ absentees ran close to double figures — and with a helping of good fortune via an unjustly disallowed goal, but they could do with a break here.
For those that believe in fortune — and Wembley has made Tottenham fans increasingly suspicious of jinxes — could this be the corner turned?
of course, with a two-goal margin of victory, one disallowed goal does not alter the outcome. But its timing might. No sooner were Dortmund wrongly penalised when Tottenham went up the other end and scored their third. Games turn on the tiniest margins. This was rather a large one, all things considered. When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang swept Mahmoud Dahoud’s cross into the net on 57 minutes, Tottenham led 2-1. That should have been the equaliser. Instead it was extinguished by an erroneous linesman’s flag. There were Dortmund players offside, but none that touched the ball.
Aubameyang, meanwhile, had timed his run perfectly from an onside position. The stooge official on the goal-line did nothing, either. Another triumph for the ideas factory that was Michel Platini.
Dortmund were still smarting when Tottenham put clear air into the game. A lovely interchange of passes ended with Christian Eriksen feeding Harry Kane and his shot went through the legs of defender Lukasz Piszczek and past goalkeeper Roman Burki.
In the space of two second-half minutes, Kane and Son HeungMin spurned excellent chances to broaden the lead.
Dortmund simply seemed to run out of puff and, after Hugo Lloris saved with his legs on 60 minutes, Tottenham assumed command.
Taking nothing away from Spurs, it is hard to imagine there has been a better time to play Borussia Dortmund in Europe these last few years.
A list of the injured was almost a team sheet in itself: Marco Reus, Andre Schurrle, Julian Weigl, Erik Durm, Raphael Guerreiro, Marcel Schmelzer, Marc Bartra and Sebastian Rode. In addition Neven Subotic fell sick and was fit only for the substitutes’ bench.
When Tottenham took the lead after four minutes, it seemed as if the match could become as close as a team would get to enjoying a comfortable evening against Dortmund in this competition.
Yet Peter Bosz’s team is not leading the Bundesliga without reason and a single-goal lead at half-time for Tottenham, with inferior possession statistics told its own story. Dortmund, even half strength, are never weak. In players like Andriy Yarmolenko, Aubameyang and Christian Pulisic, they have some of the finest performers in Europe.
Tottenham scored two first-half goals, both on the counter-attack, but were never allowed to settle. Much is made of Wembley but this was about the team visiting. Dortmund would be a danger in any arena.
Going forward, at least. In retreat, they had problems, not least goalkeeper Burki, beaten twice at his near post in the opening 15 minutes.
The first goal had echoes of Gareth Bale against Inter Milan. The same directness down the left flank, the same pace and single purpose. Kane fed the ball to Son and he was away along the wing and inside towards goal where Burki tried to narrow his angle. No matter. Son shot powerfully into the roof of the net.
It was a stunning start. Just what Tottenham craved in their temporary home and the locals rejoiced. But not for long.
Dortmund’s equaliser took just seven minutes to come. It was a one-two, played by Yarmolenko to Shinji Kagawa, the former getting the ball back on the edge of the area in what did not appear a dangerous position. Yarmolenko changed that perception with a left-foot shot that curled past Lloris, who was nowhere near despite an acrobatic effort.
However, Dortmund let Spurs bite back within four minutes. Kane shrugged off the attention of Piszczek, turning him near the halfway line. Nuri Sahin came across to cover but fell to the floor in a heap, claiming Kane had pulled him down. There was contact, yes, but nothing that should have had such a devastating effect on a man who plies his trade in the heart of midfield. Bosz was apoplectic on the touchline but should have directed his ire at his player.
Now Kane was away, with only Burki to beat and he knew just where to put it, too. Same place as Son, near post, beautifully taken.
The Germans had the better chances in the rest of the first half. In the 27th minute, Ben Davies did brilliantly at the far post to clip the ball off the toes of Sahin, while soon after Aubameyang put in a cross that just needed a touch from Pulisic to equalise.
To Tottenham’s enormous relief, he couldn’t quite get there.
Kane struck the vital third during the second period and Spurs actually ended the game with 10 men as defender Jan Vertonghen was shown a second yellow card for catching Dortmund substitute Mario Gotze with a swinging arm.
‘It’s a massive win,’ said Kane. ‘Nights like this at Wembley, we have to take advantage of it. Last season our downfall was the games at home. It was a more experienced performance tonight.’