Tottenham Hotspur were beaten 2-1 by Borussia Dortmund at White Hart Lane tonight to suffer a 5-1 aggregate defeat in their Europa League round-of-16 tie.
Pierre-Emerick Aubamayeng killed off any hopes Tottenham may have had of overhauling their 3-0 deficit from the first leg, and scored again in the second half.
Spurs grabbed a consolation through Son Heung-Min but were otherwise a distant second best. Here, CaughtOffside rates how Mauricio Pochettino’s men performed…
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GK: Hugo Lloris – 6/10
Got a hand to Aubameyang’s second and might have hoped to keep it out. Was quick off his line when he needed to be, as Ben Davies found to his detriment early on!
RB: Kieran Trippier – 5/10
Needed to tuck in slightly to help out his central defenders because he left Alderweireld with a lot of work to do. His usually-excellent final ball was also poor tonight.
CB: Toby Alderweireld – 8/10
It could have been four or five without the Belgian, who still managed to be one of the standout players on the pitch in a losing cause. Made three outstanding tackles on the cover and gave the home fans something to cheer for with some outrageous skill on the edge of his own box.
CB: Kevin Wimmer – 5/10
The Austrian’s confidence seems to have been shaken by two games against Aubamayeng. His passing was wayward and Alderweireld needed to rescue him a few times.
LB: Ben Davies – N/a
Lasted only 13 minutes, and a good portion of that was spent on the floor after taking a nasty blow to the head from Lloris. Substituted as a precaution shortly after.
CM: Eric Dier – 6/10
Put himself about in midfield, but that sometimes came at the cost of his positioning and Dortmund’s quick attack nearly exploited this a few times on the counter.
CM: Ryan Mason – 5/10
Switched the play nicely at times, but little of his passing was penetrative. Dortmund’s midfielders skipped by him easily too often. Better when he sticks his foot in.
AMR: Erik Lamela – 6/10
One of three changes to the Tottenham lineup from the first leg, Lamela made them little more dangerous going forward in spite of his hard work defensively.
AMC: Dele Alli – 7/10
The brightest Tottenham attacker. Silky on the ball and won a lot of fouls. Alli could have slipped into this top-class Dortmund side and nobody would have noticed.
AML: Nacer Chadli – 4/10
Contributed very little, which is a regular criticism of the Belgian when he is not on the scoresheet. Pochettino would have been better off giving Josh Onomah 90 minutes.
ST: Son Heung-Min – 6/10
Worked hard but often lacked the quality until he capitalised on a Dortmund error to round the goalkeeper and grab Tottenham what was the definition of a consolation.
Substitutes
Danny Rose – 6/10
Replaced Davies in the opening quarter of an hour. In front of Roy Hodgson, who named him in the England squad today, he was caught out of position for Dortmund’s second.
Tom Carroll – 5/10
Spared Alli the final 25 minutes ahead of Bournemouth at the weekend. Carroll might not start another game this season now that Tottenham are out of this competition.
Josh Onomah – 5/10
Likewise, Onomah will find game time hard to come by from now on. But seven appearances including two starts in the Europa League, will have been a great learning experience.
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