Mauricio Pochettino loves to talk about the “final step” but it is not always obvious what that means.
Winning the Premier League is the goal but it is mountainously difficult on their budget, and Spurs are already up against two super-charged rivals this year. If they overtook this Liverpool and this Manchester City it would be one of the all-time shock titles. Winning a domestic cup would be nice but we know it is not Pochettino’s priority, and Spurs are out of them both anyway.
The Champions League offers the best possible shot. Lifting the trophy in Madrid on 1 June certainly looks unlikely now but it is a cup competition and there are only 16 teams left. More grabbable is progress, a sign that Spurs have done something this year they have not done before.
That is why this knockout tie with Borussia Dortmund is so exciting for Tottenham Hotspur. Their Premier League campaign is hugely admirable: they are on course for 88 points, even better than the 86 points they won in 2016-17. That many points and even third place, given all the circumstances at the club, would be a remarkable achievement.
But Spurs fans can be forgiven for wanting something more tangibly obviously better than what they did last year. Like getting to a Champions League quarter-final, which they did under Harry Redknapp in 2011 but have not done since. Especially given the nature of their Champions League exit at this stage last year.
Remember that Spurs played well in Turin, drawing 2-2 with a far more experienced Juventus side. Then, in the second leg at Wembley, they were 1-0 up and 25 minutes from going through before they took their eyes off the ball. Juventus scored two quick goals to knock them out.
Christian Eriksen spoke to The Independent soon after that game and explained that it was experience and nous that made the difference. When everything was on the line, Spurs did not how to handle it.
“Juventus were waiting for it,” Eriksen said. “We were almost over-confident that it couldn’t go wrong. We were in a good position, almost a perfect position, to go through. We know they were more used to the bigger stages, they don’t need the ball as much.” And Eriksen knew what Spurs had to improve in future: “The clinical part. We know that in the knockout stage of the Champions League, it can be just three minutes. They had two shots and scored two goals. That’s the three minutes we need to be even more aware of, so it doesn’t happen again, to give ourselves a better chance to go through.”
Eleven months on, this is the big question facing Spurs. Are they any better at ‘the clinical part’? Will they take their chances against Dortmund on Wednesday night, and in Germany for the second leg on 5 March? If they get into an “almost perfect position”, will they get “over-confident” again, or will they keep their nerve?
This is why Wednesday night is so thrilling. It offers a brand new test of how far Spurs have improved, against the best team in Germany. And like the Juventus games last year, the tie should be closely balanced enough to give us a fresh read of where Spurs stand.
Of course Spurs will miss Harry Kane and Dele Alli when it comes to “the clinical part”, and they will have to take any chances they get just to give them a lead to take to Signal Iduna Park. But they do at least have Heung Min-Son, in the form of his life and with three in his last three games for Spurs against Dortmund. In Germany they fear Son and what he can do to the Dortmund defence. The pressure will be on him to provide all of Spurs’ much needed clincism, to prove that this time they have made a step in the right direction.
