Tottenham produce second half thrashing to dominate Dortmund at Wembley

Tottenham 3-0 Borussia Dortmund

Jan Vertonghen stole the show as he both scored and assisted in a stunning second half for Tottenham that produced a 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund.

Both sides were somewhat depleted. Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Danny Rose, Ben Davies and Eric Dier all had to sit out for Spurs. Dortmund came to Wembley without talisman Marco Reus, Paco Alcacer and Lukasz Piszcek.

The first half saw Tottenham have the larger share of possession but failed to truly penetrate the makeshift Dortmund defence. The Bundesliga front-runners created the more clear cut opportunities in the opening minutes. Hugo Lloris produced fine saves to deny Mario Gotze and Christian Pulisic.

Spurs defender Juan Foyth was struggling to cope with the Dortmund front three. The young Argentine gifted Dortmund a glorious chance to take an early lead, getting caught on the ball on the edge of his own area. But Pulisic failed to capitalise on the chance, but forced Lloris into a save at his near post.

Soon after came the first piece of magic by Sancho, who was released down the right by Achraf Hakimi before dazzling Davinson Sanchez with his agility, turning the Colombian defender inside out before playing the ball across the box, but failed to find a yellow shirt.

The impressive Thomas Delaney, who had a brilliant midfield battle with Moussa Sissoko, forced Lloris into another save with a drive from the edge of the box. As the half drew to a close, Dan-Axel Zagadou had a header saved on the lines by Lloris, who clawed the ball out, preventing a certain goal.

The restart was only young when Jan Vertonghen sent a precise cross into the box from the left to find Heung-Min Son, who opened the scoring with a fine volley. The South Korean international showed superb intelligence and movement to get away from his marker, dropping into the little space available in the box and finishing high into the net to give his side a valuable lead.

Tottenham continued to threaten to add to the lead as the half wore on, set piece after set piece came and went but they failed to hit the back of the net, Lucas Moura failing with several speculative efforts.

But Mauricio Pochettino’s side put themselves in pole position for progression with 83 minutes on the clock. After creating the first, Vertonghen scored the second. A delicious ball into the six-yard box from Serge Aurier found the Belgian, filling in at left back, free to slam home a left footed effort past the despairing Burki,

Things for better for the Wembley faithful when Tottenham all but sealed their place in the next round. A Christian Eriksen corner flashed across the face of goal for Fernando Llorente to glance into the far corner, killing not just the game, but the tie.

Sancho made way for Raphael Guerreiro, who immediately made a speculative effort to curl the ball into the top corner, but it flew past the post leaving Lloris untroubled.

The final whistle blew and the celebrations around the stadium were that of a team who were confident they had done enough. Pochettino takes his side to face Chelsea next in the Premier League before travelling to Dortmund with what seems like an unassailable lead. Lucien Favre will hope his side can recover in time to continue their Bundesliga title charge, as they travel to Nurnberg.