Tottenham Hotspur strongly held off Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium in their opening game of the UEFA Champions League knockout stages.
Jan Vertonghen was directly involved in two of Spurs’ three goals in Wednesday’s 3-0 win for the London-based club. The first of the pair was scored by Son Heung-Min as the South Korean drifted into the box and got on the end of a perfectly weighted Vertonghen cross in the 47th minute.
Vertonghen doubled his side’s lead in the 83rd minute being the beneficiary of a fine cross from Serge Aurier before Fernando Llorente’s 86th minute sealed a three-goal lead for the hosts.
Dortmund now faces the difficult task of overcoming a hefty Tottenham lead in the second leg which will take place in Germany in early March.
Ajax 1, Real Madrid 2
Real Madrid narrowly topped Ajax with a 2-1 win in the Netherlands. An entertaining game which saw the first VAR-overturned goal in UEFA Champions League history rule in favor of Real Madrid also saw a late winner for the Spanish giants thanks to Marco Asensio.
Vinicius Junior’s fabulous footwork provided Karim Benzema with an opportunity to take the lead in the 60th miunte. The Frenchman made no mistake firing his side in front following the Brazilian’s run which saw him take on multiple Ajax defenders before laying it off to the center forward.
Los Blancos’ winner came in the 87th minute as Marco Asensio stretched out to reach a cross at the far post sent in from Dani Carvajal. Asensio found enough space between himself and Matthijs de Ligt to set his feet before scoring the game-winning goal.
Hakim Ziyech’s goal sandwiched between the game’s opening goal and Madrid’s eventual winner came in the 75th minute through strong buildup play. The 25-year-old struck his side level after finishing off a David Neres pass with a first-time effort.
Ajax will gain confidence from Wednesday’s display and look to build off it as they visit Real Madrid for the second leg in early March.
Dortmund as a team appeared physically demolished. It was especially apparent in the latter part of the game. Pulisic looked good. .
i did not watch the 2nd half of the Dortmund game yet. I thought Pulisic looked better in the first half than I’ve seen him play in the last 8 months. I hope his coach agrees and starts him in the upcoming games.
didnt watch the 2nd half yet? oh boy. In regards to CP, I think since this Chelsea deal got done, he has looked energetic and dangerous. Just not getting the 90 minutes. Its frustrating bc i think he can be every bit of dangerous as Sancho (look at his last goal a couple of games ago). Sancho cant do anything wrong. Kid is super talented and deserves the praise. But look at the Hoffenheim game – had a fantastic offensive game but Sancho’s giveaway and foul gave up the tying goal. Didnt hear any criticism on that. If that was CP, pundits would be all over him. In the beginning of the season, I think it was Favre’s strategy to rotate the squad and keep everyone fresh so I understood having CP take on the cup games and CL. And be a super sub for league games.
No way Phillip should be starting over CP. Come on.
Then I think the Chelsea deal did have an affect on things.
I always thought that after the winter break, we would start to see the two threats, CP and Sancho playing together. now that the CL is virtually over, it will be interesting to see if CP’s league minutes increase. Or does Chelsea have a minutes limit in the contract?