Son Heung-min: Tottenham’s understated hero with trademark winner against Man City

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM, LONDON — Is it really so impressive, this new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium? You’d think someone could have fixed the wonky external panelling given that it cost somewhere in the region of a billion quid.

Sure, it comes with state-of-the-art facilities, vast revenue opportunities, visually stunning lightshows and the unique atmospheric focal point that is the dizzying single-tier South Stand, but the press box is carpeted, a decision which the club hierarchy may come to regret after ten thousand tea spillages and months of filthy, grubby journalists walking on it.

Before the first ever Champions League match at Tottenham’s new ground – not to mention the first ever European meeting between Spurs and Manchester City – Kevin De Bruyne had shrugged off the stadium hype with the laconic line: “Everybody has a stadium. Everybody has supporters.” With De Bruyne on the bench, however, City did seem to suffer from jangling nerves for much of the first half.

City rattled

Controversially awarded a penalty via VAR after Danny Rose was penalised for what looked like an innocuous ball-to-arm in the box, the visitors seemed to shrink under the deafening boos as they lined up behind Sergio Aguero on the edge of the area. By the time he made his run up it was like he had dwindled away to nothing in front of a sloping wall of Spurs fans, his effort firmly pushed wide by Hugo Lloris.

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Spurs seemed to have City rattled despite having less of the ball, their tireless press – led by the snappy Dele Alli and Son Hueng-min – seeing them win the ball high up the pitch time and again. The hosts had eight shots to City’s four in the first-half and it would probably be fair to say that they were twice as incisive. Harry Kane should have scored after he was set up by some lovely skill from Alli, but his swivelled shot was too close to Ederson and he made a fantastic reflex save to keep the scores level.

In an increasingly frenetic game, the number of shots on City’s goal continued to mount at a steady rate. Son, his usual slick self in attack, marked the start of the second-half by dropping a curling effort just wide of Ederson’s far post from 20 yards. Though Alli was Spurs’ most visible presence going forward – fouling and being fouled, threatening to get in behind and at one point earning Aymeric Laporte a clever and highly cynical booking – Son had an assassin-like poise which should have triggered alarm bells for City. While Alli had all eyes on him, Son, so often underestimated, was clearly building up to something.

Lightning-quick impact

That something came with barely 10 minutes to play when, having been picked out by Christian Erkisen, Son got in behind the City defence on the right. Having initially appeared to miscontrol the pass, he cut back from the goalline and looked to be drifting towards an area of relative safety for City. What came next was trademark Son, a moment of understatement followed by lightning-quick impact. Taking the ball past Fabian Delph with a neat stop-and-go, he thrashed in a vicious finish which confounded even Ederson’s reflexes.

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Whether it will be enough for Spurs is up for debate, given their shaky recent record at the Etihad. Either way, it is further testament to Son’s influence at the club and his ability to change a game. Having lost 5-0 on aggregate to Real Madrid the last time they reached the Champions League quarter-finals under Harry Redknapp, Spurs have never scored at this stage of the competition since its rebrand from the European Cup in 1992. It was fitting that Son should be the man to change that, given the profound impression he has made on the Mauricio Pochettino-era.