Three things we learnt from Tottenham’s win over CSKA Moscow

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Alli right at home amongst Europe’s best

It was a case of early frustration for Dele Alli and indeed his Spurs teammates. They were playing fast, flowing football on the Wembley turf and looked like they were out to prove a point, but when an array of early chances went begging and Dzagoev edged the visitors ahead with a rare venture outside his own half, the roughly 60,000 Spurs fans in attendance would be forgiven for thinking it was just going to be another one of those nights.

Alli cut a forlorn figure after glancing an early header wide and then fluffing his lines after latching onto Christian Eriksen’s inch-perfect pass, but persistence would pay off as he hauled Spurs back into the game right when they needed it the most, after an immaculate first touch allowed him to control Eriksen’s cross and curl a shot across Igor Akinfeev and inside the far corner. It was a little piece of history for Spurs, as he became the youngest player to score for the club in the Champions League at the age of 20 years and 240 days.

Alli had said in his post-match interview with BBC Sport:

“It’s frustrating when you don’t put away an early chance. I started getting frustrated but it was important I put a chance away.

“We have a belief in the squad. We felt we were dominating and knew the chances would come.”

And continue to come they did. From then on Alli pointed the way to victory, and after Harry Kane’s finish from a Danny Rose cross turned the game on its head, the youngster was at the heart of the visitors’ torment once more as his header from Kane’s cross drew the best out of Akinfeev, but the ball ricocheted back off the goalkeeper’s shins and flew into the net for 3-1.

The former MK Dons man will have taken some invaluable experience from his first season of Champions League football, just another addition to a rapidly developing and promising career. It might have been a disappointing Champions League campaign overall, but with more silverware up for grabs yet in Europe, showing the form that he showed on the night amongst Europe’s top teams can only be encouraging for the future.