Tottenham have the bit between their teeth after another tough win in the Premier League, this time against Leicester City.
The Foxes could have come out that game with a point, provided they had shooting boots on. Meanwhile, Spurs showed quality in decisive moments to seal the three points.
Son Heung-min scored the final goal of a mad game in which Hugo Lloris made a couple of incredible saves to keep us in the lead, and ultimately, in the race for the title.
Now, we resume our Champions League challenge in midweek, and it doesn’t get any tougher than facing Borussia Dortmund these days.
The Bundesliga leaders have been terrific this season as they lead Bayern Munich by five points. However, this seems to be the ideal time to face them, with them losing their league game over the weekend.
Tottenham have been flying in the Premier League
Late goals and doing just enough to win games – by doing all this, Tottenham are showing their character and determination to keep in touch with the league’s top two teams.
Fulham, Newcastle, Watford and Leicester were the four Premier League games where we weren’t at our best but came out with all three points.
All the games contained late goals, epitomising our will to work hard till the last second. Tottenham just seem to have an extra gear in the final minutes of a tie, and that will come in handy when we face the Dortmund juggernaut.
Credit must be given to the manager Mauricio Pochettino and the squad. We have played without Harry Kane and Dele Alli in the last few games, despite not spending a penny in the previous two windows to add depth to the squad.
Alli hasn’t had a brilliant season, however, he is a match winner and will be greatly missed against the Germans.
Son has stepped up since his return from the Asian Cup, and the likes of Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks and Hugo Lloris seem to be in form.
Dortmund have problems
The Bundesliga giants were flying high until recently. Their last game saw them throw away a 3-0 lead with 15 minutes to go against Hoffenheim.
The leaders had a three-goal cushion over their opponents but somehow ended the game with a draw. This comes on the back of getting knocked out of the DFB Pokal Cup in midweek, where they conceded three goals to Werder Bremen.
In fact, Favre’s men have not won any of their last three games and have kept just one clean sheet in their last six encounters.
That should give us the confidence of finding the back of the net at Wembley in the first leg. Furthermore, the Bundesliga leaders could be hampered by the possible absence of Marco Reus.
Pochettino has got the better of Dortmund before
Tottenham scraped through a tough group stage this season and did the same last season too. We defeated Dortmund home and away to progress with Real Madrid last time out.
It isn’t to say that Dortmund are less threatening now or are worse off, but we should be able to exploit their recent problems.
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Tottenham need to be a little careful after their painful exit at the hands of Juventus last season, however, this team has more steel about them and we should have enough to win the first leg.
