Tottenham vs Dortmund result: Spurs master 'the clinical part' to finally deliver tangible progress

The story is about the contrast between this and Spurs’ last Champions League knock-out game at Wembley, their 2-1 defeat to Juventus one year ago

If there has been something elusive and ambiguous about Tottenham this season, then on Wednesday night at Wembley they finally delivered a weighty tangible bucket of progress.

Spurs fans had been waiting all year for a sign that this season might be different from the last one. They hoped this would be the year of the new stadium, and it has still not opened. They wondered if this might be the year they win a trophy, and they are out of both cups.

But here against Borussia Dortmund, Spurs produced a second half performance that was the clearest marker possible that this is a team that is still learning and still improving. Even now, coming up to five years since Mauricio Pochettino took over. Any lingering worry that this is a team at the end of its cycle, whose progress had petered out, was emphatically answered by this second half performance.

The real story here is not only that Spurs have one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2011, or that they might start to dream about a generous draw and an unlikely trip to Madrid on 1 June. All that can wait. The story of this evening is about the contrast between this and Spurs’ last Champions League knock-out game here at Wembley, their 2-1 defeat to Juventus one year ago.

Remember that Spurs had played well in the first leg in Turin, fighting back to earn a 2-2 draw. Remember that they went 1-0 up at home, missed chances, and were 25 minutes away from progress. Before they lost focus, conceded twice in three minutes and were dumped out. That night was the shadow over this tie. We all know that Spurs were good enough to compete in games like this, against some of the best teams in Europe. But were they sharp enough to win?

Christian Eriksen knew what Spurs got wrong here one year ago. It was what he called “the clinical part”. The few minutes, the few actions, when the whole three hours of football would decided. They were the moments that would matter the most.

Eriksen spoke to The Independent soon after that game and explained that it was ruthlessness and experience that made the difference. When the tie was on the line, Spurs should have sharpened up, but instead they slackened off. “Juventus were waiting for it,” Eriksen said last year. “We were almost over-confident that it couldn’t go wrong. We were in a good position, almost a perfect position, to go through. We know they were more used to the bigger stages, they don’t need the ball as much.”

And Eriksen predicted what Spurs had to improve in 2019: “The clinical part. We know that in the knock-out stage of the Champions League, it can be just three minutes. They had two shots and scored two goals. That’s the three minutes we need to be even more aware of, so it doesn’t happen again, to give ourselves a better chance to go through.”

Spurs could hardly have lived up to Eriksen’s message any better than they did at Wembley. This was not the finest Tottenham performance of the season, not a display of total control, and in the first half they looked second best all over the pitch. But then without Dele Alli and Harry Kane this was never going to be their very best.

Tottenham fell short when it mattered most a year ago (Getty Images)

And yet the only real story of tonight was that Spurs took their chances and Dortmund did not. Forget about a complete 90-minute performance, this was a lesson in clinicism, and it came from the English team. Tottenham looked off the pace first half but they scored with their first proper attack in the second half. Jan Vertonghen’s clever cross, and Heung Min Son’s volley took advantage of one brief dozy moment from the German defence.

A year on Spurs turned a small advantage into a decisive one (Getty)

It was a huge moment in the tie, but the most important spell, and the true reversal of the Juventus game, came right at the end. Two goals in three minutes, but this time they were both for Spurs, rather than both against them. First Vertonghen storming into the box to finish, then Fernando Llorente heading home from a corner. Dortmund looked like they had barely recovered from the last punch and they were back on the canvas again.

These were the three minutes Spurs needed to be aware of, as Eriksen had put it last year. “The clinical part” of the tie, when Tottenham made a small advantage into a big one, finally looking like they knew how to perform on this stage after all.