'Attacking to defensive' - Jan's contrasting roles against Dortmund

Over the course of the two legs against Borussia Dortmund, Jan Vertonghen took the blows and did it his way.

After a superb attacking display at left wing-back yielded a goal and an assist in our 3-0 win at Wembley last month, the club stalwart shone once more at the other end in his more familiar central defensive role to help us complete the job in Germany on Tuesday night.

The Belgian international set the tone with a magnificent last-ditch tackle from behind on Dortmund skipper Marco Reus as we withstood wave after wave of pressure in the first half before snatching a 1-0 lead through Harry Kane to triumph 4-0 on aggregate over the Bundesliga leaders and confirm our place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Before the first leg in London, Jan had underlined: “I’m always available for any position where the team needs me. Obviously it’s quite different between the two positions. As a centre-back, everyone knows the way I play and as a left-back I try to do it in my way. I’m a different left-back to Danny Rose or Ben Davies.”

What he subsequently proved over the two sets of 90 minutes is that he can excel in all facets of the game – contributing goals and assists in attack and defending for his life on the opposite side of the coin.

“Yes, it was different, from very attacking to very defensive,” smiled the veteran defender as he emerged from the battle at Signal Iduna Park, comparing his roles in the first and second legs.

“I’ve always said if we can’t attack, we have to defend together and that’s what we did. We struggled in possession out there but defended very well as a team. We were lucky not to concede in the first half because if we had, it could have got tricky. But we didn’t and going in at half-time at 0-0 was good.”

After Heung-Min Son went close to snatching a sought-after away goal in the first period, striker Harry came up with the goods four minutes after the interval to deflate a highly-charged Dortmund outfit and make our night that bit more comfortable as we rubber-stamped our place in next Friday’s draw for the next round.

“Normally we only need one or two chances,” said Jan. “Sonny had a good one but then when Harry goes through against the goalkeeper you want him in that position and once he scored… actually I didn’t celebrate because I was waiting for VAR but once the referee said it was a goal, I thought ‘yes!’ To be fair, we knew then.”

Playing his 48th game for us in Europe on Tuesday and perched joint-fourth on our list of all-time top appearance-makers on the continent, the experienced defender was delighted to see our current group of players reach the last eight of the Champions League for the first time, with our last foray to this point having taken place in 2010/11.

“It’s great for the players, this team, guys who have achieved a lot over the years,” he said. “This is a great group of players and great guys. They deserve this. We’ve put so much work into this and we’ve been unlucky a couple of times but we’ve rewarded ourselves with a great Champions League quarter-final and I can’t wait for the draw!”