Son Heung-min bounced back from his weekend devastation as he scored two goals in Tottenham’s impressive 4-0 Champions League win at Red Star Belgrade.
Son was visibly distraught after his tackle led to a horrific injury to Everton’s Andre Gomes on Sunday and he was a doubt to make the trip to Serbia as a result.
But he put it all behind him in Belgrade with a double in four second-half minutes to take his tally to nine Champions League goals in 2019 and five in four games this season.
His brace added to Giovani Lo Celso’s first goal for the club and a late Christian Eriksen strike, as Spurs finally won away for the first time since May 8 – the famous night against Ajax in Amsterdam.
The victory, in a stadium where Liverpool were beaten last season, puts the Premier League side in the driving seat to join Group B leaders Bayern Munich in the knockout stages.
It also gave an insight into what the future might look like as record signing Tanguy Ndombele put in a superb performance while deadline day arrival Lo Celso, making his first start, also looked the part.
The challenge now for Mauricio Pochettino is to translate this performance into their stuttering Premier League campaign.
The manner of this win will surely inspire confidence, though, as they knew only too well how tough this assignment was going to be after Liverpool lost here one year ago to the day in last season’s group stage.
But they did well to dampen down the atmosphere with a measured approach that took the sting out of any fast start Red Star may have hoped for.
They kept the ball well and Lo Celso and Ndombele – starting together for the first time – showed what Spurs may have to look forward to in the future as they each created a chance in the opening 22 minutes.
Ndombele set Kane free, with the England striker shooting into the side-netting, before Lo Celso played Son in, but he shot just wide.
Having held a watching brief for most of the match, Paulo Gazzaniga ended up keeping Spurs on level terms a minute later with a fine save.
Milan Pavkov got a lucky deflection in the box and it appeared easier for him to score, but he somehow found the feet of Gazzaniga, who made a good save.
But that would have been harsh on Spurs and the visitors went ahead 11 minutes before the break as Lo Celso made it a full debut to remember.
There was nothing pretty about the goal, though, as he was the one to eventually prod home from close range after Kane and then Son had hit the woodwork in a crazy few seconds of pinball.
Spurs were lucky to survive a similar situation at the other end just before the break.
Former Huddersfield and Wolves winger Rajiv Van La Parra got free and his low shot cannoned off a post, with Davinson Sanchez’s attempted clearance off the rebound then hitting the crossbar.
It was important for Spurs to stay in front as it allowed them to kick on after the break and Son’s first 12 minutes after the restart took the heat out of the game.
Ndombele starred as he led a lightning-fast breakaway, feeding Dele Alli to play in Son and the South Korean fired home a high finish in style. After scoring, Son turned to a camera and held up his hands in an apparent apology following his involvement in the Gomes incident.
Four minutes later it was 3-0 as another brilliant move, which saw Kane play in Danny Rose, ended with Son converting at the far post.
The finishing touches to Spurs’ first away win in 183 days were completed five minutes from time as substitute Christian Eriksen squirted home from Ryan Sessegnon’s assist.
It completed back-to-back group games against Red Star that saw Tottenham win by a combined 9-0 scoreline and they can complete qualification if they beat Olympiakos later in the month.
