Tottenham took another step towards joining Europe’s elite by teaching the reigning European champions Real Madrid a lesson in how to play football at Wembley.
Dele Alli scored either side of half-time to raise the roof at England’s national stadium before Christian Eriksen gave them an unimaginable 3-0 lead. Cristiano Ronaldo’s scrambled strike only served to soften the beating.
Sportsmail‘s SAM CUNNINGHAM was at Wembley to digest a memorable night for the north London club….
Dele Alli scored twice for Tottenham to seal a remarkable result against Real Madrid
ALLI’S AT IT
It took Dele Alli all of 20 seconds to go through the back of Real Madrid’s Nacho. It set the tone. Soon after, Harry Winks was late on Achraf Hakimi. Harry Kane was shoving and jostling with Real’s centre-backs. It was not a reckless, over-the-top approach, but quietly let Zinedine Zidane’s players know Spurs were there and up for it.
Alli and his Tottenham team-mates quickly set the tone with some meaty challenges
ZIDANE’S MAGIC TOUCH
This was Zidane’s 24th match in the Champions League as a manager — yet astonishingly he has lifted the trophy twice in that short space of time. At this rate he’s averaging a Champions League trophy every 12 games in the competition. Real are bidding for an unprecedented third successive victory in the tournament, after becoming the first team ever to lift it in consecutive seasons back in May.
Zinedine Zidane had a night to forget, but his record in the Champions League is remarkable
WINKS GETS THE NOD
Such is the faith that Mauricio Pochettino has in 21-year-old Winks, he started again at Wembley on Wednesday against the La Liga giants. In recent weeks, the central midfielder played the full 90 minutes against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the reverse of this fixture, in the thrashing of Liverpool and the narrow defeat to Manchester United last weekend. He warranted his place yet again.
Harry Winks warranted his place in the starting XI with another fine display from midfield
SPURS NEMESIS
With goals in each of his last five appearances against Spurs now — and six in total — Cristiano Ronaldo has become Tottenham’s nemesis. In fact he has 10 goals in all competitions against them, more than versus any other English side. The Spurs supporters booed every time he got on the ball. Bad move: the Portuguese phenomenon relished it, and played up to the jeers with tricks and flicks, until he eventually scored late on.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal was his 10th against Tottenham, the most he has vs any English club
EXPENSIVE BENCH WARMERS
The quality and cost of the talent on a team’s bench can tell us much about how big a club they and Pochettino was able to have more than £100million-worth of players sat in the Wembley dugout alongside him. It included £30m signing Mousa Sissoko, £18m Heung-Min Son and £23m summer purchase Serge Aurier.
Mauricio Pochettino boasted a bench worth over £100m in transfer fees on Wednesday night
