Tottenham Hotspurs produced a magnificent display to totally dominate Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund and take control of this Champions League last 16 tie in the first leg at Wembley and the Spurs head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, believes that his side is often underestimated.
Dortmund, regarded by many as favourites with Spurs missing injured talisman Harry Kane as well as Dele Alli, failed to respond to the Tottenham’s attacks.
Dortmund started brightly at Wembley but Tottenham seized control of the match with second-half goals from Heung-Min Son, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente which makes it Spurs’ fourth win in a row in all competitions.
“It’s good because the expectation when people watch Tottenham is not only to win, it’s to see a performance like the dream team of Barcelona with [Johan] Cruyff or Milan of Arrigo Sacchi,” Pochettino said in a post-match press conference.
“That is very good, we feel very proud when people expect that from our performance, but sometimes people underestimate us.
“We play much better than people assess us sometimes, but you cannot fight with the perception of people. I am happy with the performance and the circumstances we have.
“Many things happen and the team is fighting, getting results, I feel so proud for that. My players are heroes, whatever happens, they deserve full credit and a lot of praise. What they are doing this season is amazing.”
Reflecting on the second-half improvement from Spurs, Pochettino said: “The first half was very difficult. Our feeling was we never felt the confidence to play. We made some rushed decisions, we were not comfortable and didn’t feel how we planned to play.
Borussia Dortmund will host the second leg of their Champions League tie on March 5.
This victory is a huge one for Spurs, and pushes them one step closer to truly being recognised as a force in European football. But simultaneously, it’s one that showcased the skillset that will likely see them lose their manager to one of the world’s big hitters.