Champions League: Harry Kane banishes Spurs’ Wembley woes

Tottenham 3 Borussia Dortmund 1

Two goals from Harry Kane helped Tottenham launch their Champions League campaign – and break their Wembley curse – with a comfortable win over Dortmund.

The home of English football hasn't been a happy hunting ground for Spurs since they relocated from White Hart Lane as the latter is renovated, but Kane's double broke the hoodoo and left the striker delighted.

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"It's a massive win," he said. "Last season our downfall was the games at home. It was a more experienced performance from us tonight. In the Champions League you have to be smart. You can't always press teams on a big pitch. We took advantage on the counter-attack and exploited the space they left in behind."

It was Kane's team-mate Son Heung-min who put Spurs in front after just four minutes with an angled shot, only for the hosts’ advantage to be cancelled out seven minutes later by Andriy Yarmolenko.

But Spurs were soon back in front in a frenetic first quarter after Kane surged down the left and fired a shot past Roman Burki. The pace slackened after that and it wasn’t until the hour mark that the Tottenham striker grabbed his second of the night. His low shot inside the far post took his tally to 28 goals in his last 22 matches for club and country.

"For me he's one of the best strikers in the world," said Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino. "There's no doubt for me. But if you score in this competition, the most important competition in the world, I think it will give him the credit that he deserves."

It was only Tottenham's third win in their past 13 matches at Wembley and Pochettino says he wants it to put an end to the media speculation of a ‘curse’. "I hope that can help us to stop the talk of the hoodoo and everything," he said. "It's fantastic to start well in the competition, but also to stop everything that was around the team here. Today means more than three points. It's Wembley, it's the perception that we had to change for our future."

In the immediate future Spurs will be without Jan Vertonghen for the trip to Cyprus to play Apoel (who were beaten by Real Madrid in their opener) after the defender was shown a red card late on for catching Mario Gotze in the face with his forearm. "It wasn't the intention of Jan, but we have to see the replays," said Pochettino of the incident. "It's a little bit of a shame he received a red card."

But other than that it was a perfect start for Spurs in Group H against the joint leaders of the Bundesliga. "It was massive to start that way with three points," said Pochettino. "It was so important to get the points against a fantastic team like Dortmund. It's massive for our confidence."