Seven decades, 100 wins - highlights from a century of home wins in Europe

This week’s impressive Champions League defeat of Borussia Dortmund in N17 marked a significant milestone as it was our 100th home win in European competition. We’ve gone through the archives and picked out one major home win in each decade – although there were plenty to choose from!

1960s

Spurs 8-1 Gornik Zabrze | European Cup
20.09.1961
White Hart Lane

The game that started it all and one which remains as a genuine European highlight in our history. Our first-ever foray into Europe after winning the League title the previous season saw Bill Nicholson’s side suffer a 4-2 defeat away to Polish outfit Gornik in the first leg of the preliminary round, trailing 4-0 at one stage! It was a different story back in north London though as Gornik crumbled under the pressure. Wearing the now traditional all white strip at home for the first time, we demolished the Poles with Cliff Jones netting a hat-trick, Bobby Smith a brace and further goals from Danny Blanchflower, Terry Dyson and John White, to make the rest of Europe sit up and take notice.

1970s

Spurs 2-1 Milan | UEFA Cup
05.04.1972
White Hart Lane

Our first European campaign of the 70s came in 1971-72 when we competed in the inaugural UEFA Cup. Of course, we won the competition with a 1-1 home draw over Wolves after a 2-1 win at Molineux and our semi-final victory at the Lane over Italian giants Milan was pivotal to that success. In his record 854 Spurs appearances, Steve Perryman only scored three times in Europe, but two of them came in this game! After Romeo Bonetti had given Milan the lead, Perryman cracked home two outstanding right-foot strikes – one in each half – to give us the win and a narrow lead to defend at the San Siro, which we did with a 1-1 draw to reach the final against Wolves.

1980s

Spurs 4-2 Feyenoord | UEFA Cup
19.10.1983
White Hart Lane

En route to UEFA Cup glory in 1983-84, we won all but one of our home matches. The only game in N17 we didn’t ‘win’ was the second leg of the final against Anderlecht, drawing 1-1 after extra time but, of course, lifted the trophy after penalty shootout success. For many supporters, our 4-2 home victory over Feyenoord in the second round was a real highlight. This was Johan Cruyff against Glenn Hoddle, billed by some as ‘The Master versus The Apprentice’ as the ageing Dutch genius Cruyff came up against our own midfield maestro who was making a name for himself. On the night, Hoddle won the battle as we won the first leg, two goals apiece from Tony Galvin and Steve Archibald putting us 4-0 up at one stage, with Hod pulling the strings. Cruyff and Ivan Nielsen scored late on for Feyenoord, but the night was ours as we took another step towards that glory, glory night in the final in May.

1990s

Spurs 3-1 Porto | European Cup Winners’ Cup
23.10.1991
White Hart Lane

Not our finest period when it comes to European football as we only competed for two seasons at either end of the decade, but this victory over Porto stands out. Back in Europe after our 1991 FA Cup triumph, we came up against formidable Portuguese opposition in Porto, who won their league title at a canter that season. Across the entire 1991-92 season, only one team scored more than twice against Porto in any game and that was us in our second round, first leg meeting. Our 14^th minute opener is one of the finest goals we’ve ever scored in Europe, some wonderful one-touch football opening up the Porto defence for Gary Lineker to score. Gordon Durie added a second, Emil Kostadinov pulled one back for the visitors, but Lineker’s second on 82 minutes sealed a fantastic victory. A goalless draw in the return saw us progress.

2000s

Spurs 3-2 SC Braga | UEFA Cup
14.03.2007
White Hart Lane

It wasn’t until 2006-07 that we first played in Europe in this decade and won four out of our five matches played at the Lane in the UEFA Cup, before a 2-2 draw with Sevilla ultimately saw us exit the competition 3-4 on aggregate. Our fourth round, second leg encounter with SC Braga from Portugal was an entertaining affair with Martin Jol’s side coming out on top. We’d won the away game 3-2 but fell behind in N17 when Tom Huddlestone headed into his own net. Step forward Dimitar Berbatov, who seized the initiative to guide us through. He scored the equaliser and then put us ahead before the break with a brilliant volley. Braga levelled on the night through Joao Amaral, but Berba’s sublime pass enabled Steed Malbranque to make it 3-2 again, to book our place in a quarter-final showdown with Sevilla.

2010s

Spurs 3-1 Real Madrid | UEFA Champions League
01.11.2017
Wembley Stadium

Okay, we’ll admit – this was the hardest decade to choose just one game! There are plenty of contenders…our first-ever Champions League match when we demolished Young Boys 4-0 or the match that coined the phrase ‘Taxi for Maicon’ as Gareth Bale ripped Internzaionale apart in a 3-1 win; how about Bale’s two stunning free-kicks against Lyon, or when Harry Kane ended up in goal and Erik Lamela scored a rabona against Asteras Tripolis? Wins against PSV, Inter, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City – the latter our first-ever Euro game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – which all played a part in us reaching the Champions League Final in 2019? But, in the end, we went for our 3-1 victory over holders Real Madrid at Wembley in the Champions League group stage in 2017. That felt like the night Mauricio Pochettino’s team came of age and started to believe. We hadn’t been great under him in Europe up to that point and didn’t even make it out of the group the season before with poor results against Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen. But it all changed in 2017-18. At Wembley on matchday four, Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid were over-powered, Dele Alli netting twice and Christian Eriksen adding a third before Cristiano Ronaldo’s late consolation on a night few Spurs fans will ever forget.

2020s

Spurs 3-1 Bodo/Glimt | UEFA Europa League
01.05.2025
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

One step from a Europa League Final last season and standing in our way were Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt, the surprise package of the competition. There have been some incredible atmospheres at our new world-class stadium but few better than for this semi-final, first leg, where our supporters turned the stadium white hot and Bodo melted under the intensity. And the explosion of noise that greeted our opening goal after just 38 seconds was something else, Brennan Johnson heading home to set us on the way. James Maddison doubled our lead before half-time with Dominic Solanke converting a second-half penalty and, although Ulrik Saltnes gave Bodo hope with a late goal, Ange Postecoglou’s side enjoyed a 2-0 win in the return leg in deepest Norway to secure our place in the final – and a glory night in Bilbao!