CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - HARRY KANE MASTERCLASS ENDS TOTTENHAM'S WEMBLEY HOODOO

Harry Kane craves the Champions League to be his stage; to be his proving ground; to show he is world class and he provided more compelling evidence that he is just that as Tottenham Hotspur thrillingly defeated Borussia Dortmund to banish their Wembley woes and give themselves an outstanding opportunity, already, of progressing in Group H.

It may only be the first tie of six but, with Real Madrid also in this group, and with Apoel Nicosia expected to be the whipping boys, the head-to-heads against Dortmund were always going to be defining. 

Afterwards manager Mauricio Pochettino was clear on how important the result was for his team. “Massive,” he said, adding that it felt like more than just three points to “build the confidence and trust at Wembley and the perception we can get for the future”.

Kane scored twice, and created Spurs’ opening goal in an entertaining, open tie, although they were fortunate when Dortmund had a goal ruled out for offside, which would have made it 2-2. Moments after, Kane scored.

Spurs will believe they were due that luck having suffered at this stadium for so long but, even in victory, there was a setback, with Jan Vertonghen shown a second yellow card after it was deemed he had caught substitute Mario Gotze with a flailing arm in the face in injury time. He will receive a one-match ban.

This was only Spurs’ second win in 12 matches at Wembley and only their third victory in 10 Champions League games. It was an important win against one of the big European beasts, who serially reach the knockout stages and whose last appearance here was in the 2013 final.

Kane celebrates scoring Tottenham's second Credit: Getty images

Kane thrived against them. He has now scored 29 goals in 27 matches in all competitions for Spurs this year and this was the third successive Champions League match in which he has scored. Kane is getting better and better and is beginning to belong in that rarefied company of elite strikers, imposing himself for club and country. Europe is taking notice and, when he was substituted late on, he departed to a standing ovation.

There was much debate afterwards over Spurs’ tactics; that they have learnt from bitter experience to box a little bit more cleverly, to defend a little deeper and strike on the break and, while there was a variation in their approach, they were simply not as secure as that would suggest, although Serge ­Aurier was impressive on his debut at right wing-back.
Dortmund, depleted by injury, were dangerous throughout and there was an outstanding save from Hugo Lloris to deny Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after he met a flicked-on corner at close-range. 

Aubameyang was again denied a goal when he slammed a crisp half-volley around Lloris only for the striker to have – wrongly – been deemed offside. Before that, Dortmund had another effort ruled out after the ball was turned in by Christian Pulisic, with Aubameyang, in an offside position, also ­attempting to score.