Spurs' first-half salvo puts them firmly in charge of Euro destiny, despite late Frankfurt scare

Champions League MD4

Tottenham (3) 3 Son 20, 36, Kane 28

Eintracht Frankfurt (1) 2 Kamada 14, Alidou 87

Spurs found their shooting boots to quickly recover from going a goal down to grab control of their Champions League fate.

Two from back-on-song Heung-Min Son and one from Harry Kane set Antonio Conte’s men on their way and with Marseille winning in Lisbon, it means victory in their penultimate group game at home to Sporting in a fortnight will book their passage to the knock-outs.

Life on home soil is certainly proving very fruitful these days. They can make it 10 wins in a row in all competitions at the TH Stadium if they can beat Everton on Saturday.

Spurs only had themselves to blame for falling behind and the early jolt probably did them good.

A calamitous touch from Eric Dier was seized upon by the lively Jesper Lindstrom and although a diving Hugo Lloris cut out the cross that followed, Frankfurt skipper Sebastian Rode was on hand to nip in and play the ball in for Daichi Kamada to put away.

But two goals in eight minutes soon turned things around for Spurs. Son levelled it up after racing though to tuck away another of those perfectly-weighted Kane passes from the centre circle. Keeper Kevin Trapp had no chance.

And soon after, a VAR intervention persuaded Spanish ref Carlos Del Cerro Grande to award Kane a penalty after he tumbled under a challenge from Kristijan Jakic. The outcome always seems a foregone conclusion when the striker has the ball at his feet from 12 yards. Except he would later show that there is no such thing in football.

Son blasted in a beautiful left-foot volley from 12 yards after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg had chipped back from the byline and only Trapp’s outstretched left boot denied the South Korean a first-half treble.

Christian Romero almost made it 4-1 with a header before the turn around and Ryan Sessegnon nearly slotted in a pass from Richarlison after the break.

Frankfurt’s night got no better, as defender Tuta was shown two yellows in fairly quick succession for fouls on Son to depart with half an hour still to play.

It is to their credit that they still ‘won’ the second half as substitute Faride Alidou headed home at a corner with three minutes to go and their spirited approach almost forced an unlikely draw.

Bryan Gil’s twisty run into the box in injury time drew a foul from Hrvoje Smoicic and that gave Kane a chance to add to finish the argument – only for the England striker to uncharacteristically blaze over and there was still time for Alidou to force Lloris into another save as a few home hearts fluttered.

Frankfurt have proved hard to beat in recent visits to the capital.

Chelsea got the better of them, but only on penalties in the Europa League after a draw at Stamford Bridge, while their hot-shot Japanese striker Kamada scored twice in a 2-1 victory at Arsenal a couple of years ago before netting again in last season’s win over West Ham at the London Stadium.

This time, however, they met their match.

There was a poignant minute’s applause before kick-off to mark the passing of former player Jogn Duncan and the too-early loss of fitness coach Giampiero Ventrone, which hit the club hard this week. But both men would have admired the way their club went about its business tonight.

Spurs: (3-4-3) Lloris - Romero, Dier (Sanchez 77), Lenglet – Emerson, Hojbjerg Gil 85), Bentancur (Bissouma 67), R Sessegnon – Richarlison (Skipp 67), Kane, Son (Lucas Moura 85)

Frankfurt: (3-4-2-1) Trapp – Tuta, Hasebe (Dina Ebimbe 69), N’Dicka - Jakic, Rode (Smolcic 69), Sow, Lenz (Alidou 69) – Lindstrom, Kamada (Gotze 78) – Kolo Muani (Borre 69)