Heung-Min Son: “A better night for Jan is impossible”

Heung-Min Son felt Jan Vertonghen put in a near-perfect performance as we produced a night to remember against Borussia Dortmund in our Champions League Round of 16, first leg at Wembley on Wednesday night.

The South Korean star certainly benefited from one of Jan’s many outstanding pieces of play with arguably the key moment of the match, the opening goal hitting the back of the net 65 seconds into the second half.

Christian Eriksen won the ball back, Lucas Moura played it to Jan and he delivered an inch-perfect cross over defender Abdou Diallo for Sonny to volley home.

Starting left side of our 3-4-3 system in a wing-back role, Jan went one better as we once again found late goals. With 83 minutes on the clock, Serge Aurier picked out Jan’s burst into the box and he finished clinically for 2-0. One of the great European nights was completed when Fernando Llorente glanced home from Christian’s corner to hand us a healthy 3-0 lead going into the second leg in Germany on Tuesday 5 March.

Sonny was left to reel off Jan’s night. “We won 3-0, clean sheet, goal, assist - unbelievable from Jan, a better night for him I think is impossible!

“Jan was unbelievable tonight. I didn’t have to do much (for the first goal) because the cross was unreal, the ball went to my foot, I just had to touch it. I said to him he can play in every single position because his technique is unbelievable. I really enjoy watching him.

“It was the right timing to score the first goal and in the second half we bounced back stronger than we did in the first half, we deserved a few goals and we did it. Fernando, for example, he came on and helped the team as well. It’s an honour to play with every single player here.

“I think the most important thing is that we wanted this first game and it’s a great win at home. It was an unbelievable night.”

Sonny’s goal was his ninth in 11 career appearances against Borussia Dortmund and with his five years in the Bundesliga with Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen coinciding with BVB winning two titles (2012/13, 2013/14), he knows full well that Die Schwarzgelben are going to come back firing in the second leg.

He added: “We have to be ready for every ball, every minute, every second. It will be a very tough game. We don’t have to think that we are 3-0 up, we have to think it’s 0-0 and we start again.

“I hope we have a great result and we have to think of last season (lost 4-3 to Juventus over two legs in the last 16 having led 3-2 in the second leg at Wembley). We will have to show our best performance again.”