England superstar Harry Kane scored a brace to sink Dortmund – and to finally break Tottenham’s Wembley jinx.
Kane’s double after he curated Heung-min Son’s opener, made sure that Pochettino’s Spurs kick-start their Champions League campaign in brilliant fashion – although Jan Vertonghen was sent off during the final quarter of the game.
The win over Dortmund on Wednesday also registered their first victory of this season at their temporary home Wembley.
Spurs lost to Chelsea and were held by minnows Burnley at the start of this Premier League season – and many fans started to believe that the ‘Wembley Curse’ is a real thing.
But Kane put an end to all such fears as he guided Mauricio Pochettino’s side to an incredible victory over Dortmund in their Group H opener.
Spurs took the lead in the fourth minute with Kane setting up Son racing clear from the halfway line on the left.
It seemed Son had dawdled on the ball but his finish past Roman Burki and into the far corner was both powerful and controlled from a tight angle.
Dortmund clinched the equaliser just after seven minutes, as Andriy Yarmolenko played a one-two with Shinji Kagawa before launching a curler into the corner to make it 1-1 in the 11th minute.
But Kane put Spurs ahead in the 15th minute from a brilliant solo effort – fighting off Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Omer Toprak and then making his way past Nuri Sahin before thumping in a powerful shot that saw Dortmund keeper Roman Burki beaten at his near post for the second time in the game.
Kane then put the game to bed for Spurs by making it 3-1 with a low left-footed strike from the corner – after Christian Pulisic also had a goal disallowed.
Vertonghen was shown the second yellow after having been harshly adjudged to have elbowed Dortmund substitute Mario Gotze.
3 – Harry Kane is the first Englishman since Wayne Rooney in 2010 to score in three consecutive Champions League apps. Streak.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 13, 2017
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino said: “It is more than three points. At half-time we fixed some problems and modified the position of some players.
“The tempo of the game decreased which was better for us. Dortmund are a very aggressive team, we struggled a little to pass the ball quickly.
“Sometimes you can’t dominate, you have to play a different way and the team is more mature now. We can learn a lot from this game.
“Harry Kane was fantastic.”