Borussia Dortmund (Home) 20.01.2026

With only eleven fit and eligible outfield first teamers, the choice of a starting line-up was severely restricted and the bench looked very youthful, with seven Academy products awaiting their chance to mix it with the Champions League elite.  With exclusions from the Champions League squad, Thomas Frank revived memories of Harry Redknapp as he claimed we were “down to the bare bones”.  Dortmund on the other hand were not so unlucky with a number of familiar regulars in their team and on the bench.

For all the praise that comes the Borussia Dortmund fans’ way, they are a horrible bunch.  Having been held up for ten minutes on the Worcester Avenue while they carried out their “march” to the stadium, there was no noise from their fans as they filed down the road, unlike those fans from AC Milan and RB Leipzig, who have made much more noise when making their way to the ground.  Once inside, they started the game by throwing things onto the pitch, which caused a hold-up in the first couple of minutes, then, when Pedro Porro went over to take a corner in front of them, they pelted him with objects that then stopped play again.  They make a lot of noise, mostly unintelligible, wave their scarves about, but, like the march, it is all orchestrated and none of it is intuitive.  

Adeyemi got away in the first couple of minutes, but Porro came across to dispossess him and a free-kick from their right wing was played straight into Guglielmo Vicario’s hand by Svensson, who then had to make a vital interception as the ball had been thrown out to Djed Spence, played down the line to Wilson Odobert and his low ball to the near post was aimed at Xavi Simons.  Spurs were targeting the left side of the Dortmund defence and a neat exchange of passes between Simons and Porro opened up space for Pedro to cross low, but again it was cut out just before it got to Dominic Solanke.  Wilson’s running at the defence in the wide right position was causing concern to the Germans and it paid off for Spurs in the 14th minute.  Pedro took a corner on our left that went to the near post, but was headed away to the back of the box where Odobert tried a first time volley, getting it all wrong.  His shot went straight down into the ground in front of him, bounced over Brandt’s head and he got round the back of the midfielder to drive a low ball back across the face of goal and captain Cristian Romero was there to side-foot home with his right foot from just outside the six-yard box.  It was loose defending by Dortmund that gave Tottenham the goal they deserved for their good start, albeit with some good fortune which has been deprived us in recent weeks.

Adeyemi shoved Udogie over from behind after he sped away from him, coming after an earlier cynical trip on Simons, both with Spurs players landing forward onto the ball.  The free-kick was played short to Xavi, whose cross found Kevin Danso and Romero getting in each other’s way in a lot of space at the far post.  Pressing high, it was unsettling Borussia and the energy being put in was not being matched by the yellow shirts.  The Dortmund players could just not cope with the attacking speed we were playing at, as Wilson again drifted past Schlotterbeck with ease to put a ball into Xavi with his shot being blocked by Bellingham.  The former Birmingham City player was involved in an incident earlier in the move with the ball hitting his arm away from his body with the VAR looking at it, but deciding that it wasn’t a penalty, although it appeared to occur on the line of the side of the penalty box.  Not that we knew anything about it at the time, with no message being displayed that a VAR check was in progress.  

When the ball came into the box, Spence’s looping ball to the far post was taken by Kobel just before Cristian could reach it, then the keeper pushed Kevin Danso in the face as he rushed to kick the ball forward for Adeyemi to chase.  It looked as though he might be through on goal but just on the edge of the D, he lost control and stumbled over the ball allowing Djed, being one of four Spurs defenders around him, to take the ball away.  With Xavi playing with an ankle injury, the opposition targeted that and when he was left limping after another tackle that should have been given as a foul, Archie Gray turned the ball back to Vicario.  The keeper didn’t sort out his feet and got the ball caught under his studs in the six yard box ahead of the near post, but sorted himself out in time to boot the ball out for a throw. 

Djed was causing problems on the other flank and got past Yan Couto (a player Spurs wanted to sign from Man City before Dortmund) and pulled the ball back from the dead-ball line for Solanke, who turned but couldn’t get a decent contact on it, but he got back up to win the ball and then got in Porro’s way as he came onto the ball to shoot although it was blocked.  While Spurs looked different to the recent league games with some crisp passing and finding space, while, in contrast, Dortmund’s passing was awful.  When they worked the ball to their left side, Svensson lost possession and in trying to win it back, he fouled Odobert.  Wilson was rightly unimpressed and stayed down with the Swedish full-back kicking the ball away and being shown the yellow card.  As is usual with cautions, it is never revealed what it was for and Wilson wanted to show the referee the stud marks high on his calf where he had been caught, but the official walked away.  The next thing we knew there was a message on the bis screen saying that they were looking at a possible red card.  When the referee makes the “square window” sign, you usually know what is coming (although not always when Spurs are involved).  Slow-motion replays showed that it was a full set of studs just below Odobert’s knee with a straight leg from the defender.  After quite a few looks at it, the Swedish referee sent the Swedish defender off with our Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall comforting him on his way off.

So 26 minutes into the match, Dortmund were one down and one player down.  Just a couple of minutes later it could have been 2-0 as Simons cross to the far post on the right was inches too far ahead of Porro, as he looked to stretch to meet it on the volley.  Pedro then put a cross into the corridor of uncertainty between the keeper and the defenders, but nobody gambled on getting onto it.  Spurs were enjoying the space of having the extra man and made the most of it with some expansive passing.  Spurs were using quick, short passes to manoeuvre the ball around and having worked the ball out from the back Spurs played the ball from one side to the other and back, wit Pedro’s cross just a little too high for Solanke to get a good header on it, but it went to the back of the area for Djed to collect.  The cross was cleared but Romero fed Porro, whose low ball was cleared.  Then a cross from the right was headed in the air by Romero dropping for Spence to slice a volley well over the top.  With Guirassy failing to be able to pull Romero off the ball, Spurs played the ball out from the back once more, with Pedro Porro working a one-two down the right side with Wilson, whose low, firm cross into the penalty area picked out Dom.  If he had meant it, this would have been a wonderful piece of skill with his first touch with his right foot hitting his left heel and then coming off his right foot to take the ball past Kobel, who was two feet in front of him and in off the far post.  Even the scorer saw the funny side as his big grin showed.

Two nearly became three when Danso popped up on the right and his ball in for Solanke was slightly behind him but fell into the path of Xavi Simons, who blazed it over the bar.  Tottenham’s press was solid and didn’t allow a free man for Dortmund to play the ball out before and after the sending off and it was creating more chances by playing on the front foot and creating turnovers.  Porro did really well to pull down Gray’s diagonal pass in the box under pressure and set up Odobert for a shot that Kobel flopped to his right to save comfortably. 

Early in the second half a free-kick was given against Lucas Bergvall a couple of yards outside the box to the left of the D, which substitute Ryerson curled over the wall but a yard wide of Vicario’s right hand post.  From up in the East Stand, just for a moment, it looked like it might be in, but there was relief to see the ball end up wide of the stanchion behind the goal.

Lucas Bergvall was already struggling having picked up a knock on his ankle from a kick by Emre Can causing him to limp around when a ball forward from Vicario saw Dom go to challenge for it and accidentally step on Schlotterback’s toes.  The shameful writhing around by the German defender intended to get Solanke sent off (which was never going to happen as it wasn’t even worth a yellow card), was accompanied by a snide look towards his bench.  His constant complaining and holding of his ankle (which wasn’t even where the contact was) shows how low some players will stoop to gain an advantage when Bergvall just got on with it.  It didn’t do the Dortmund captain any good as his dissent to the fourth official saw the referee wave a yellow card at him.  Well, I thought it was at him, but somehow the UEFA website has given it against “Davies”.  Ben is still in hospital, so it couldn’t have been him and if they think it was one of our coaches, Chris Davies left a long time ago.

After going down a couple of times, Lucas had to be substituted and in the 62nd minute Jun’ai Byfield replaced him to make his debut as a 17 year old, winning a header to a high ball with his first touch, even if there was no challenge on him, he received a big cheer.  Having dropped off the ball, Spurs were giving Dortmund more possession, although they didn’t really make much of it.  Not a lot happened for 10 minutes until Spurs again passed the ball up-field and Destiny received the ball from Odobert and touched it on for Simons to wriggle to the right of centre and hit a shot on target from a narrow angle that Kobel beat out for a corner.  Romero peeled off at the back post and his header appeared to be touched around the post by the goalkeeper, but the referee awarded a goal-kick.  Then again, the ref blocked off Xavi as he looked to pick off a Dortmund pass in the centre circle.

After the clash, the ref needed running repairs on his comms and the rain continued to lash down as it had done since the hour mark.  With 77 minutes gone, Xavi Simons, who had a great game, slipped a beautiful pass through the middle of the visitors defence for Randal Kolo Muani to run onto.  Kobel came, but stopped in his area and Randal was one on one with him, but the keeper stood his ground as the ball was tried to be slipped between his legs, but it ball cannoned off his leg and away.  Porro then tried to lift the ball over the yellow back line for Kolo Muani, but the French striker just gave up on the ball after it would have put him in the clear.  The Dortmund defenders stopped too, but Djed Spence kept running and caught up with it before it went out of play.  Whether he thought he was offside, nobody was sure, but he looked onside when Pedro played the pass.  Without much else to boo about, some sections of the crowd showed their derision.  

As the game came towards the final stages, Schlotterbeck had a free header from a corner that he put across goal and in added time the same player won a header to a free-kick to register their first effort on target in the 91st minute.  Ryerson, who seems to have been brought on to try and get a Spurs player sent off, had two kicks at Archie Gray and when Gray grabbed the Dortmund 26’s shirt, they both got a yellow card.  There had already been a couple of incidents with Ryersen, namely him trying to intimidate Byfield and then having an argument with Porro, but it was Pedro who should have wrapped things up, as Spurs broke away in the second minute of added time and Xavi sent Porro through in the right hand channel, only for him to look up to see whether to shoot or play someone else in, taking his eye off the ball that touched his right foot and allowed a defender to get across in front of him.

At the end of the game, there was the unusual sound of cheers from the crowd as the players had put in a very good performance.  The energy and movement off the ball was much improved, while our passing was a lot more measured and incisive tonight; not all of it, but much better than recently.  It allowed Spurs to work their way around the Dortmund side making them look very ordinary with the high press working effectively.  There were a number of very good performances, with Spence, Odobert, Danso, Simons and Porro standing out, but Solanke’s return was welcome and celebrated with a goal and Byfield was effective in all he did after coming off the bench.

With Frankfurt losing again, their hopes of a play-off slot has disappeared, but they will be wanting to show their fans something at home in Tottenham’s next match.  A win for Tottenham will gain a route through to the knock-out stages and depending on other results a point might be sufficient, although it is tight around the bottom of the 1-8 section of the table.  That would save us playing two extra matches and give our injured players an opportunity to re-join the squad when battle re-commences.  Hopefully, we can reproduce this sort of display to achieve what we need.

• Jun’ai Byfield made his Tottenham debut.
• This victory was Tottenham’s 100th at home in European competitions.
• Tottenham completed their four home matches of the Champions League League Phase with a 100% record and without conceding a goal.
• Pedro Porro was the UEFA Player of the Match.
• Spurs extended their unbeaten home record in European competitions to 24 matches.