As the Tottenham players prepared to head down the tunnel at half-time, they paused for a huddle that appeared to be called by defender Kevin Danso.
It did not last long – but with Thomas Frank already off down the tunnel towards the dressing room it looked very much like a conversation between a group of players who had finally decided to wake up.
A win against a German side down to 10 men after 26 minutes falls some way short of what we can call a genuine turning point for a manager and his team. Saturday at Burnley in the Premier League may tell us more.
Nevertheless, Tottenham at least looked like Tottenham here both in the way they played and the way they carried themselves.
Gone was the hesitancy of recent weeks and in its place was a vibrancy and swagger the home supporters expect to see here.
Spence on the money
Few transfers sum up the chaotic way Tottenham have done their business in recent years than the one that brought Djed Spence to the club in 2022.
Djed Spence embodies Tottenham’s erratic transfer policy but shone against Borussia Dortmund in Champions League action
Manager at the time, Antonio Conte, had no say in the deal and described him as a ‘club investment for the future’. Three-and-a-half years on and the 25-year-old still has much to prove.
Here, though, we saw the attacking play we recall from his days at Nottingham Forest four years ago. Spence played down the left here and attacked at will, soon discovering that the Dortmund defence had no answer to his direct running.
It was from one of his runs that Spurs earned a corner in the 14th minute and from that Frank’s team scored their first goal.
Can the fans turn?
Many Tottenham fans have given up on Frank already. The football his team has played has been so boring and ineffectual they simply believe he is the wrong fit.
Other factors are at play. Spurs supporters pay high ticket prices and expect more in return. There were 10,000 empty seats here, which was startling given how hard the club fought to get here by winning the Europa League.
The fans need to see more of what they believe they deserve and pay for if this season is going to turn round.
At the weekend, Spurs chief executive Vinai Venkatesham admitted the club needed to be more competitive on player wages. That has been noted and it remains to be seen if he is as good as his word.
Europe can save Frank
Back when David Moyes was battling to save his skin at Manchester United, Europe gave him oxygen. It was not until a Champions League quarter-final with Bayern Munich had been lost that United decided to call time on him.
Frank is a little way short of that level of salvation but Europe could yet offer him a way out of this mess. Frankfurt away is next week’s final group-stage assignment and the German club have won once since mid-November.
Thomas Frank is some way off acceptance from the Tottenham fans amid a difficult season
If Spurs win that they will be one knockout tie from a place in the quarter-finals and it feels unlikely the board will pull the trigger. Frank is missing key men. Put James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur and Mohammed Kudus into this team and it starts to look different.
It is not time to get carried away but Spurs have lost just once in Europe’s elite competition – against holders PSG – and that may count for something.
No consistency
The decision to send off Dortmund’s Daniel Svensson was terrible. If Diogo Dalot’s challenge on Jeremy Doku was not a red card offence in the Manchester derby then neither was this.
Svensson dangled his foot in the air and Wilson Odobert ran on to it. The still that referee Glenn Nyberg was presented with when he looked at the VAR monitor looked dreadful but the moving footage told the real story.
No force, no danger, no intent. Consistency? There is none.
