| Match report
With a defensive performance
that was as good as I have seen from a Spurs side, it was left to
Harry Kane to score the only goal of the game to take Tottenham into
the Champions League quarter-finals with a victory over Borussia
Dortmund. It might be the Yellow Wall that Dortmund have to
house their 25,000 standing supporters singing "You'll Never Walk
Alone", but it was the White Wall that stopped a barrage of attacks
on the Spurs goal in the first half, before opening out in the
second to score the all important goal that left the home side
needing five to go through.
An early corner saw Sissoko
head the ball well clear and both sides were surrendering possession
as the referee was allowing some physical contact, maybe following
the ways of Dean and Taylor. Play was so congested that it wasn’t
possible to pass the ball out or to play it away with the ball
bouncing off the home team player’s legs. When the ball came off
Sanchez, it looked as though Reus was in on goal, but SuperJan
produced a superb sliding tackle to not only tackle him, but hook
the ball away from six yards out in the penalty area.
Alacaer shrugged off
Davinson Sanchez to go on and poke the ball over Lloris’ bar, but he
was offside and at least the ref was being consistent when Davinson
barged a yellow shirt off the ball. Twenty minutes in, Reus hot a
shot that Lloris had covered, but Sanchez’s attempted block saw the
ball pop up off his heel and Lloris had to be lively to reach up and
parry the effort, which he grabbed at the second opportunity. Spurs
were having to stand firm, as Diallo went down their left, came
inside into the box before pulling the ball back to Gotze to shoot
from 25 yards, but Christian Eriksen blocked it.
It was on the half hour that
Spurs created their first opening, when Kane poked a ball through
for Son to run in on goal and he put the ball wide as Burki came
out, although it looked as if there were questions over offside and
a push on him by Wolf as he was about to shoot. The referee didn’t
bother consulting VAR or they didn’t indicate that either matter was
a clear and obvious error. Three minutes later a corner was
flicked across goal and when it came back in, Reus’s ball was flick
headed at goal by Weigl and Hugo made a low stop and the same
Borussia player looked to convert the rebound from a tight angle,
but Ben Davies dived in to block it for another corner. This one was
played back to Rues, who drilled a volley from 20 yards and Sanchez
got a block on it to take it over the top. From the next corner the
ball dropped for Gotze to curl and effort from the left of the goal
and Lloris dived high to his left to tip the ball wide.
Lloris was down to stop a
Sancho drive from their right before Vertonghen slid to block a low
cross in from Wolf for a corner. It was all Dortmund and Spurs were
defending with great solidity, managing to break away to win a
corner, but that ended up as a goal-kick to the home team when Toby
went in at the near post. When Tottenham did manage to get the ball
in the Dortmund half, they had numbers back to dispossess Kane or
Son. When we did get a short spell of possession, they handed the
ball back by poor passing when not under pressure.
Borussia's Alcacaer forced
Lloris to a diving save to his left, but the Spurs captain got
everything behind the ball. Within a couple of minutes of half time,
Spurs were holding the ball better and won a corner that was
cleared, won back, lost and then Sissoko showed strength to win it
back again heading back towards his own goal. Reaching the interval
with the score-line goal-less was half of the battle, so into the
second half, would the home team press harder or would Tottenham hit
them on the break. At the start of the half, Reus was played in on
the Spurs right and put a pacy low ball across the face of goal, but
it was missing a yellow shirt on the end of it and then Reus popped
up on the other side before hitting a cross off the pitch on the
other side of the goal.
47 59 When Spurs got hold of the ball, it was played into Christian
Eriksen in the centre of the pitch. His ball looking to find
Harry was blocked and it bounced out to Sissoko. Moussa didn’t
hesitate and played a first time pass through the Borussia defence
that released Kane, who had stayed onside and took a touch and then
sent a right foot shot over Burki’s dive to his left and the ball
hit the top corner of the net to give Tottenham a 4-0 aggregate
lead. It was a clinical finish and a fine pass by Sissoko that
created the goal. A minute later, Kane could make sure his
celebration was valid when the referee indicated that VAR had
confirmed he was onside.
When Dortmund lost the ball
from the kick off, Kane tried an outrageous effort on goal from 40
yards out, seeing Burki off his line, but the ball just sailed a
foot or so over the bar. Winks had to go off with what looked like a
recurrence of his hip problem or a pulled groin, so Pochettino
brought on Eric Dier in his place. Whether the game opened up or the
goal had rattled Dortmund, but the space that was not available to
Spurs in the first half started to appear and they were able to move
to receive the ball and maintain possession a little better. Fauvre
was forced into making a double change on the hour, with Wolf going
off and luckily for Spurs he had proved to be a like for like change
for Zagadou from the first leg.
When Davies lost the ball 20
yards out, it looked as though it might be a dangerous situation,
but winning the ball back and then breaking away, there was a corner
won at the other end by Son after a surging run by Moussa. The
so-called Wall of Sound was silenced and all that was heard was the
drummer and a few whistles when Lamela replaced Son. On 74 minutes,
Marco Reus went off with Thomas Delaney coming on in what might have
been a flag of surrender thrown in by the Borussia manager. A
quarter of an hour before the end, substitute Pulisic had a free
header from 10 yards out, but he glanced it over and Lloris watched
it comfortably miss the target.
With Kane leading the line
well, he played a ball inside to Eriksen on halfway and his pass out
to Aurier saw Serge play a good pass beyond a yellow shirted
defender for Sissoko to run onto. Unfortunately, he tried to dribble
around another and went down, but it never looked like a foul.
Tottenham were picking off Dortmund at will and when they released
Aurier on the right, his cross was too high for Lamela. Sub Bruun
Larsen had a volley with five minutes remaining, but it was half
blocked and Lloris took it easily in front of his face. From the
keeper, the ball was worked forward and Lamela’s ball beyond the
defence was just too late to allow Kane to stay onside.
Even with just two minutes left, Alcacaer was released by a good
pass by Bruun Larsen, but he looked devoid of confidence as he
struck the ball low, but straight at the Spurs keeper, who had kept
low and closed him down. At the other end, as the game entered added
time, Serge put in a fierce cross that Lamela went in for and
Pulisic got a boot to, just before the Argentine’s head and it came
off Lamela’s head for what should have been a goal-kick, but was
given as a corner. It allowed Spurs to keep the ball at the right
end of the pitch until the final whistle that saw the 1-0 win as the
reward for a very mature, disciplined and professional display.
You could pick out at least
one moment for each Tottenham player that made this victory happen
and the whole team deserve credit, as well as the coaching staff for
putting the performance together by practice on the training pitch.
The belief that they could come out of this bowl of noise with a
result to go through to the quarter-final was so strong that there
was little Dortmund could do. Maybe their finishing wasn’t of
Kane’s quality, but they pushed and pushed, so it was only a
determination among the Spurs team that prevented them breaking
through.
The much vaunted duo of Sancho and Pulisic failed to deliver, with
Pulisic coming off the bench, but unable to take a golden chance
with a header that lacked conviction and confidence. Sancho found
that defending in the Bundesliga may be preferable to hone his
budding talent, but against a top Premier League side, he was
anonymous for long periods, as was the case in the first leg.
Pochettino’s change halfway
through the first half that moved the side from a 5-3-2 to a 5-4-1
pushed Son wide and made more problems for the home side. The way
the defence played made it difficult for the home team to get shots
past the blocking defenders and when they did, Lloris was in fine
form, making some super saves. However, the real credit should go to
Jan Vertonghen for the amazing tackle on Reus that inspired his
team-mates to perform to the level they produced.
Wit Real dropping out on the same night it made the win seem even
better. Roll on next Friday and the draw for the next round !
The Heathrow
Spur |
