Harry Kane was the familiar hero as his two late goals earned Tottenham a 2-1 win over PSV and kept their Champions League hopes alive.
Spurs’ faltering Group B campaign looked like hitting a new low after Luuk de Jong put the Dutch side ahead after only a minute at Wembley, which left Mauricio Pochettino’s men on the brink of being knocked out.
But Kane stood up when it mattered to rescue his side, equalising in the 78th minute and then being the beneficiary of an extremely kind deflection 11 minutes later to complete the turnaround.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. #OneOfOurOwn pic.twitter.com/WSI6aUWbYy
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 6, 2018
The win, Spurs’ first of the group stage, leaves them in third place, three points behind Inter Milan, who visit Wembley in three weeks.
They will need to win that game and will have to be more clinical than they were against PSV, who should have been put to bed long before Kane’s late heroics.
However, Spurs could not have envisaged having to go on a rescue mission as early as they did as they fell behind with only 62 seconds on the clock.
Their vulnerability from set-pieces was again exposed as De Jong, who scored PSV’s late equaliser in Eindhoven a fortnight ago, out-jumped everyone and planted a firm header into the corner from Gaston Pereiro’s corner.
The hosts dusted themselves down and the chances soon racked up for them to have turned the game around by the half-hour mark.
Dele Alli had an effort cleared off the line, Christian Eriksen’s deflected strike flew just wide before a dynamic run by Lucas Moura yielded three separate shots on goal, the last of which came with the Brazilian on the floor where he hooked over.
PSV were frightened to death of Moura’s pace and he created another opening but a smart double save from Jeroen Zoet kept the visitors ahead, first stopping Eriksen and then Alli from the rebound.
Alli, back in the side after being rested at the weekend, then had another glorious chance when Toby Alderweireld’s long ball set him free, but Zoet again came to the rescue.
The incessant Tottenham pressure continued after the break, but with PSV flooding their final third with bodies and clear chances were harder to come by.
Alli put a decent opening well over from the edge of the area, Heung-Min Son had a deflected effort go just wide while Kane had an effort well saved by Zoet.
Spurs eventually got their reward with 12 minutes of normal time remaining when Kane fired home his third goal of the Champions League campaign after latching on to Fernando Llorente’s knock down.
His fourth came in the 89th minute – after goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga had saved well from Donyell Malen – came with a huge slice of luck as the England captain’s header hit two PSV defenders on the way to wrongfooting the unfortunate Zoet.
Spurs were not going to complain and all eyes are now on the clash with the Serie A side, who drew at home with Barcelona.
