Five... big wins against Bundesliga teams

Wednesday night's UEFA Champions League MD4 clash against Eintracht Frankfurt at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium represents the 14th time we've faced German opposition in European competition, a history that has seen us take on eight different opponents in 27 matches going back to FC Cologne in the UEFA Cup in 1974.

That means many moments contributing to our rich history in Europe - here are five big wins against teams from the Bundesliga...

Spurs 2-0 Bayern Munich - 07.12.1983

A year earlier, we were dumped out of the Cup Winners’ Cup by Bayern Munich after suffering a hefty 4-1 defeat in Germany, so when the two teams were paired together again in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup, revenge was very much in the air. We lost the away leg again but this time it was the first game and it was only a 1-0 reverse, Michael Schumacher with the only goal of the game. So we headed back to London confident of turning things around and, with Glenn Hoddle in imperious form, did just that. As expected, we had to work hard for the win against an experienced Bayern side but Keith Burkinshaw’s team had plenty of battle-hardened players as well, who knew how to get through difficult cup games. We levelled the aggregate scores on 50 minutes when Hoddle floated over a free-kick, Graham Roberts knocked the ball down and Steve Archibald prodded home from close range. There were just four minutes left when the winning goal came and Hoddle was again the architect, clipping a ball in behind the Bayern defence for Mark Falco, whose angled drive beat Jean-Marie Pfaff, hit the post and trickled over the line. Job done - and we went all the way to the final that season, famously beating Anderlecht on penalties to lift the trophy.

Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Spurs - 23.11.2006

European football returned to White Hart Lane in the 2006/07 season after an eight-year absence and there was a return of another kind when we headed to Germany to face Bayer Leverkusen in our third game of Group B in the UEFA Cup. Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov had left the German side to join us during the close season so there was almost an element of inevitability when we were drawn with Leverkusen in the group. Having got past Slavia Prague in the play-off, Martin Jol’s side beat Besiktas and Club Brugge with Berbatov on target in both games before he made an emotional return to his former club, where he’d spent five years and was a firm fans’ favourite. It was Berbatov who forced Leverkusen goalkeeper Jorg Butt into the first save of the game just after the half-hour mark and he was then in the right place to tuck home the rebound after Butt had kept out Aaron Lennon’s initial shot. At the other end, Paul Robinson made two fine saves from Andrej Voronin to preserve our lead and we held out for the win, which was enough to secure a place in the next round. Having received a bye against Feyenoord, we then beat SC Braga 6-4 on aggregate before Sevilla knocked us out in the quarter-finals.

Spurs 3-0 Werder Bremen - 24.11.2010

For a team making their debut in the Champions League, we didn’t half enjoy ourselves in the group stage of the competition in 2010/11! In fact, our first-ever group game was against German opposition in the form of Werder Bremen as we picked up a valuable point in a 2-2 draw. After that, the goals just kept flowing for us as we beat FC Twente 4-1, lost 3-4 in the San Siro when Gareth Bale scored that hat-trick against Internazionale before he then destroyed the Italians in our 3-1 home win. By the time Werder Bremen arrived in N17, we were on the brink of qualification to the knockout stages, just needing a win from our final two games to progress. Harry Redknapp’s side had just beaten Arsenal at the Emirates thanks to a Younes Kaboul winner and the French defender took just six minutes to find the target again, side-footing home to give us the lead. In first-half stoppage time, Peter Crouch headed Alan Hutton’s cross into the path of Luka Modric and he made no mistake for 2-0. Bale did miss a penalty but we were completely in control and added a third late on when Crouch scored from Aaron Lennon’s cross. In our final group game, we drew 3-3 at FC Twente to become the first team to score at least twice in every Champions League group game and edged past AC Milan in the Round of 16 before losing to Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Spurs - 21.11.2017

When we returned to the Champions League in 2016/17 after a six-year absence, we endured a disappointing campaign that saw us fail to get out of the group. So when we qualified for the competition again the following season, there was a real determination to improve. That happened straight away on Matchday One, as we beat Dortmund 3-1 at Wembley and backed that up with a 3-0 defeat of APOEL in Cyprus, a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid followed by a superb 3-1 home victory against the Spanish giants. When we travelled to Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park for the fifth match of the group, Mauricio Pochettino’s side knew that victory would cement top spot and that wasn’t an opportunity we were about to slip. We did have to come from behind though as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave the home side a 31st-minute lead but Harry Kane levelled things up with a crisp finish early in the second half. It was left to Heung-Min Son to secure the points, firing into the top corner with 14 minutes remaining to give us a 2-1 win. In the Round of 16, we held Juventus to a 2-2 draw in Turin, but lost the Wembley return 2-1 and exited the competition.

Spurs 3-0 Borussia Dortmund - 13.02.2019

This was our last home win against a German side in European competition as we gave ourselves a wonderful chance of progressing through the Round of 16 with this impressive first leg victory. It was also our final European game at our temporary home of Wembley Stadium. We had emerged through Group B by the skin of our teeth after losing our first two games, but a Lucas Moura equaliser against Barcelona in the Nou Camp in our final group game booked our place in the knockout stages. We’d faced Dortmund the previous season, winning home and away in the group, and repeated the feat with two more fine performances. All the groundwork was done in this first leg although it wasn’t until late on that we put daylight between ourselves and Lucien Favre’s side. After a goalless first half, Heung-Min Son scored his obligatory goal against Dortmund before Jan Vertonghen got on the end of Serge Aurier’s cross to make it 2-0 in the 83rd minute. Just three minutes later, Fernando Llorente headed home our third just seconds after coming off the bench. It gave us a healthy cushion to take to Germany for the return leg and we finished the job with a Harry Kane winner to progress 4-0 on aggregate. We went all the way to the final that season of course, before losing to Liverpool in Madrid.