Tottenham 2-0 Borussia Dortmund: Frank gets crucial win as Spurs march towards last 16

Thomas Frank was given a huge boost to his position as Tottenham manager as they convincingly beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the Champions League.

Spurs are now in an extremely strong position to reach the last 16 automatically after the victory in North London, which saw Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke each bag their first Champions League goals in the first half.

Daniel Svensson also saw red for the Bundesliga outfit in what was an encouraging and surprisingly comfortable evening for Spurs, especially considering their poor recent form in the Premier League previously.

Frank’s men have climbed to fourth in the standings for the time being at least, two points inside the top eight places ahead of Wednesday’s action, as Dortmund sit a point outside in 11th.

Spurs shine in first half

There were no sign of Tottenham’s recent woes in the opening stages as they made a confident start at home, with a slick move involving Xavi Simons seeing the hosts go away from turning in a Pedro Porro cross, just after Dortmund had thwarted a good chance for Simons a few moments before.

And they got the goal their start deserved when a clearance only made it as far as Wilson Odobert, who fired it across the box for Romero sidefoot home and electrify the home crowd – and potentially Frank’s tenure.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Svensson was shown a straight red after a VAR review concluded the Swede committed a high boot challenge when battling with Odobert.

The dismissal buoyed Spurs even more, with Porro just unable to get on the end of a brilliant ball by Djed Spence from the left.

Spurs were in dreamland when Solanke – making his first start since May last year – got the final, if fortunate touch on Odobert’s cross to double the hosts’ advantage before half-time.

The chances kept coming for Spurs as Simons skied a shot over after Solanke had done well to bring the ball down and divert it his team-mates way on the edge of the box as the hosts went into the half-time break in full control.

Spurs see out crucial win

Some sloppiness at the start of the second half led to a Dortmund free-kick just outside the box, with substitute Julian Ryerson whistling a shot past the post in a reminder for the hosts that the game was not won yet.

A setback came Spurs’ way when Lucas Bergvall had to be withdrawn. Their depleted options in that area of the pitch illustrated by the fact that Jun’ai Byfield, just 17, came on for his debut in his place.

After a period of pressure from the visitors, Spurs began to make their extra man advantage count as Simons forced a good save from Gregor Kobel at the near post before Romero headed the resutling corner just wide.

Another great pass from the brilliant Simons presented a huge chance for substitute Randal Kolo Muani but the striker couldn’t guide his finish past Kobel.

Nico Schlotterbeck went closest to getting the visitors back in the game with Guglielmo Vicario tipping over the big centre-back’s header from a corner.

But Spurs managed to see the game out with relative ease for a victory that will certainly silence some Frank doubters – until their trip to Burnley on Saturday at least.