Were it not for the right hand of Hugo Lloris, Tottenham would have trailed Borussia Dortmund by a potentially decisive away goal last night.
Dortmund had comfortably been the better side in an entertaining first-half and, just a couple of minutes before the break, Dan-Axel Zagadou went close to breaking the deadlock. After some fine work from Jadon Sancho out wide on the right, the lumbering defender climbed above Juan Foyth to head the ball towards goal, only to be denied by a stunning Lloris save.
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino knew something needed to change. And so he made the subtlest of tweaks to his strategy, with Son Heung-min scoring almost immediately from the restart before late goals from the excellent Jan Vertonghen and second-half substitute Fernando Llortente.
Starved of options given Harry Kane and Dele Alli’s injuries, as well as Danny Rose’s lack of fitness, Pochettino could not realistically turn to his bench at the break. So he instead slightly altered his formation.
Spurs had started the game playing five at the back, which became a 3-4-3 when in possession, with Christian Eriksen looking to join Son and Lucas Moura in attack. But in the second-half, Eriksen began to play a lot deeper, as Spurs looked to bolster their midfield.
That meant that, out wide, Vertonghen and Serge Aurier could suddenly begin flying forward more regularly, pressing far higher up the pitch. The strategy helped to negate Sancho and Christian Pulisic — both of whom had made bright starts to the game — while also making Tottenham more threatening themselves when going forward.
Vertonghen was the chief beneficiary. The Belgian assisted Son’s opener and then scored the second, converting Aurier’s in-swinging cross.
“It's like we weren't comfortable,” Pochettino later explained of Tottenham’s subdued first-half performance. “We didn't feel we were playing how we planned to play. But at half-time we fixed some problems, by showing the players some clips at half-time and talking a little about different positions, offensive and defensive.”
And Dortmund boss Lucien Favre also admitted that the balance of the match swung wildly at half-time.
“We played well in the first half. We had a couple of chances and we defended very well,” he said.
“But the start of the second half, we gave it away. We should get the ball forward rather than try and play. When we lost the ball, the cross came straight in and that was in the back of the net. Unfortunately, that's a gift. And after that we tried but played a bit too hastily.”
