Talking Points from Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund couldn’t have had a worse start to this season’s Champions League as they crashed to a 3-1 away defeat to ten-man Tottenham Hotspur. Harry Kane’s brace and a Son Heung-min goal condemned Peter Bosz’s side to an embarrassing defeat, but they can take relief from the fact that recent summer signing Andriy Yarmolenko scored his first goal for the club.
South Korean forward Son Heung-min scored the opening goal with barely three minutes on the clock, capping off a well-worked move with a sumptuous strike at the near post. However, the visitors responded in prime fashion as they levelled the scores only seven minutes later. Yarmolenko scored a brilliant curler into the top corner, giving Hugo Lloris no chance. Dortmund dominated the possession for most of the match, however, it was Tottenham that scored twice more, both times through English international Harry Kane, as they ran out 3-1 winners and are now second in Group H, trailing leaders Real Madrid on goal difference. The only blot on their performance today was Vertonghen being sent off late in the match.
Here are the major Talking Points from the match:
Dortmund ‘Bottle it Up’
Even though Tottenham is the club that’s famous for ‘bottling up’ in the big games, it was actually their opponent tonight who did the business for them. When the group stage draw was made, fans and pundits alike had declared that the English club stood no chance of progressing to the next round, as they were up against Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, two of the biggest European clubs at the moment. However, with an emphatic win tonight Tottenham have effectively silenced their critics, and now it’ll be an uphill battle for Dortmund who now need at least 13 points in the next five matches to qualify for the next round ahead of their counterparts.
Bosz’s tactics backfire
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino outclassed Peter Bosz’s tactics in every area, scoring three goals in a match in which they enjoyed only 32% possession. Dortmund’s free-flowing formation couldn’t control Tottenham’s counter-attacking in the first half, and when Bosz tried to improve his team’s formation after the break, Tottenham shifted to a direct approach and started relying on long balls to break through the defence. While Peter Bosz is no doubt a great tactician, he simply got his tactics wrong today. Or maybe, Pochettino was too good for him.
Pulisic excites the fans
In a frustrating evening for the German club’s supporters, watching Pulisic torment the opponent’s defence was a welcome sight. The 18-year-old showed great maturity and confidence and his exciting runs made the visiting supporters stand in their chairs many times over the course of the match. His runs on the flanks and crossing were inch-perfect and were it not for Aurier’s solid performance the American teenager could well have had an assist or two in this match.
Kane proves doubters wrong- yet again
Harry Kane is one of England’s most underrated strikers. He’s scored so many goals since his first full season at Tottenham there’s simply no other player close to his consistency. He’s been labelled as a big-game bottler, but he’s time and again proved that he indeed belongs to the world’s best. Critics have been claiming every year that this could be the season when Kane finally shows his true colours and not score even five goals a season, and even wrote him off after a barren spell in August. However, Kane has now scored in the last three games running and doesn’t look like slowing down any sooner. He deserves a lot more respect than what he gets, and tonight’s performance was yet another reminder of that.
