Harry Kane came of age in the Champions League to sink Borussia Dortmund in their opening group game and give 10-man Tottenham a first victory of the season at Wembley.
The in-form striker said ahead of the game that he had to start scoring in Europe’s top competition – and he lived up to his word with two superbly taken goals.
Kane ensured a half-time lead with Spurs’ second goal from a counter-attack down the left hand-side, finishing inside the near post in similar fashion to Heung-Min Son’s opener.
Andriy Yarmolenko had equalised for the visitors but Kane slammed home the third to exact revenge on the side that dumped them out of the Europa League in 2016, before Jan Vertonghen was sent off for a second booking late on.
Tottenham were poor in Europe at Wembley last season, winning just one Champions League group game, and they looked off the pace again as Dortmund dominated the opening half.
But Son – one of three changes that saw Mousa Dembele return and Serge Aurier handed his debut – was clinical on the break after he was put through by Kane and opened the scoring after just four minutes.
Dortmund were unfazed and looked constantly dangerous, with Yarmolenko curling home an equaliser seven minutes later following a neat one-two with Shinji Kagawa.
Kane barraged his way past two Dortmund defenders to smash his side back in front, but the Bundesliga side had further chances through the lively Christian Pulisic, who had a goal ruled out for offside on the stroke of half-time.
Dortmund had the ball in the net again on 57 minutes and had cause to complain when it was also disallowed, with Pierre-Emerick Aubamayang onside when he sidefooted home.
But Spurs looked more in control in the second half and Christian Erkisen improved along with them, setting up Kane on the hour-mark with his 20th assist of 2017.
Hugo Lloris was forced to make an excellent save to deny Aubameyang from close range late on before Vertonghen was given his marching orders in stoppage time for flicking an arm into Mario Gotze’s face, which appeared accidental.
This post was last modified on 13/09/2017