Dortmund vs Tottenham: Spurs show their new-found maturity in Germany and they're hungry for more

After reaching the last eight Toby Alderweireld and Tottenham know they'll have to keep on producing at the level they showed on a landmark night in Germany

Reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League takes plenty of fuel. And so, as Tottenham’s players left Signal Iduna Park after a long, lung-sapping night against the Bundesliga leaders, each one carried a little parcel of food as they stepped onto the team bus. Jan Vertonghen bore a large fruit yoghurt. Moussa Sissoko clutched two large pots of fruit. Danny Rose held what looked tantalisingly like a jam doughnut. You can take the boy out of Leeds, and all that.

And for all the ostensible comfort of a 4-0 aggregate victory, and the relatively benign feel to the second half after Harry Kane’s goal made the tie safe, Tottenham had certainly been made to work for it. Particularly during a chastening first half during which the home side threw everything at their opponents in search of the early goal that might inspire a famous comeback. “We needed at least one goal before half-time,” Dortmund’s Marco Reus admitted afterwards. “We had an incredible number of chances.”

It was a former Dortmund legend, Paul Lambert, who famously claimed that a stat never won you a game of football. And here, while Tottenham’s performance metrics may indicate they were played off the park - 36 per cent possession, five shots to 19, 38 clearances to nine, seven saves to Roman Burki’s none - ultimately, Dortmund’s statistical dominance added up to a grand total of zero goals.

So how did Tottenham pull this one off? Quite simply, they defended for their lives, even though at this rarefied level there is nothing simple about it. It requires an immaculately-drilled back-line, perfectly straight, perfectly spaced. It requires clear, decisive communication, a keeper on top form and a little luck. And, as Toby Alderweireld explained afterwards, it required a maturity and resilience - both mental and physical - that Spurs sides of the past have not always possessed.

“Maybe the team of a couple of years ago would concede, and then it would be much more difficult,” Alderweireld admitted. “So we are making steps forward. It was very tough in the first half. But the team is growing, playing with more maturity to get through those kind of moments. We dug in. And we knew if we did that, we wouldn’t concede.

“They are a very attacking side, especially with their line-up. So the aim was to get through the first 30 minutes without a conceding a goal. It was difficult, because they put a lot of pressure on us. And when we had the ball, we didn’t play well. The last 15 minutes of the first half, you saw a difference. Then, when we scored at the start of the second half, the game was over.”

In the dressing room, however, there was only one word on everyone’s lips: Ajax. Their remarkable 4-1 win at the Bernabeu was a triumph to not only stir the romantics, but ignite the competition. And for the four ex-Ajax players in the Tottenham squad - Davinson Sanchez, Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Alderweireld - the prospect of a reunion with their formative club was almost too exciting to take in.

“I think they did a wonderful game,” gushed Alderweireld. “We know that every club in the quarter-final of the Champions League is a massive club, so we know that we will have a big team against us. But Ajax is Ajax…”

This will be Ajax’s 12th European Cup quarter-final, but only Tottenham’s third (1962 and 2011 were the others). Yet their performance over two legs against Dortmund demonstrated why it’s not outlandish to imagine them as potential winners. Champions League campaigns are about grit as much as guile, and over 180 immaculate minutes of game management and opportunism, Tottenham showed they have the temperament for these high-pressure situations.

Kane scored the only goal of the game in Dortmund (AP)

We’re no longer at the stage of the competition where Spurs can rely on being able to play their opponents off the pitch. They’ll be coming up against high-class teams who like to dominate the ball, who won’t simply be content to let Tottenham pass the ball around the back and get settled. Alderweireld, one of only two Spurs players to have reached a Champions League final (with Atletico Madrid in 2014; Fernando Llorente is the other), knows this better than most.

“You have to be strong when needed,” he said. “Of course we can play good football, but when you play the best teams in the world, sometimes it’s difficult, it doesn’t go your way. So you have to dig in, be strong as a team, defend and get clean sheets. We’ve been there last season; unfortunately we didn’t get through, but it does give you the experience, the know-how of what you need to do to get to the next round. Sometimes you just need to play games.”

With a thin squad and plenty of injuries, Alderweireld knows he’ll have to play plenty of those games himself. And for a player who appeared to be on the conveyor belt out of Tottenham last season, here was a reminder that on a night like this, there are few more reassuring presences in this rapidly maturing side. Reaching the last eight is some achievement. But fuelled by the glow of another famous European performance, Spurs are hungry for more.