Dortmund 3 Tottenham 0: Five things we learned from Spurs' Europa League round of 16 defeat

Mauricio Pochettino has rotated his side for every Europa League game this season in order to keep the likes of Harry Kane, Mousa Dembele, Kyle Walker, Dele Alli and Erik Lamela fit for Spurs’ title push. Only Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld have started every European game this season.

Tottenham sit five points adrift of top of the table Leicester at present and with a trip to bottom side Aston Villa coming on Sunday, Pochettino would have been able to justify playing his big guns at the Westfalenstadion. Instead, the Argentine largely selected second-string players with the likes of Ryan Mason, Tom Carroll and Joshua Onomah given the daunting task of facing a Dortmund side who haven’t lost at home since 10 December.

Given the phenomenal season Tottenham are enjoying in the Premier League, it’s difficult to argue with Pochettino’s policy of rotating for the cup competitions. However, if the title challenge falters in the coming weeks, Spurs fans could be left looking back at this tie wandering ‘what if?’

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s quality is no surprise to anybody at this point, only Robert Lewandowski has more goals than the Gabon international this season and there were shades of Lewandowski in the Dortmund man’s performance against Tottenham.

The way Aubameyang rose to guide a superb headed effort into the bottom corner of the net to open the scoring was truly exceptional. Add that finishing ability to his physicality and blistering pace, which he displayed on multiple occasions tonight, and it is clear that Aubameyang would have all the attributes needed to excel within the quick and physical Premier League.

The reigning African Player of the Year has been strongly linked with a move away from Germany this summer and several English clubs have expressed an interest including Arsenal. Aubameyang, however, has stated his preference to play in Spain with Real Madrid looking the most likely destination.

Back in August it would be laughable to suggest that Tottenham would be in a position to rest seven of the team that started in the North London derby as they travel to Germany and take on this excellent Borussia Dortmund side, yet here we are.

Whatever you think of the decision of Pochettino to rest players or the performance on the night, it’s clear that the young products coming through the Tottenham academy are helping to build a competitive squad and have contributed to Tottenham’s excellent form in the Premier League.

The performance of Joshua Onomah was a real highlight from a Spurs perspective, the young academy product looked quick and technically gifted when he had the opportunity to get on the ball. The youngster from Enfield was desperately unlucky not to win a penalty for his side in the second half.

Another two academy products in Tom Carroll and Ryan Mason were outplayed in the middle of midfield but both have been used frequently by Pochettino to give more established players a rest, they are functional holding midfield players and clearly have the trust of the manager and have played reasonably well all season.

With players like Kane and Onomah, both North London boys, being mixed in with big money signings like Lamela, Lloris and Dembele, Pochettino may have the recipe for building a squad capable of sustained success at Spurs.

There were shades of the 2013 Borussia Dortmund side who, under Jurgen Klopp won a Bundesliga title and reached a Champions League final. Klopp’s familiar ‘gegenpressing’ was on show as the Germans swarmed all over the spurs team high up the pitch and repeatedly won possession back inside Tottenham’s half.

In the second half, attacking the famous ‘Yellow Wall’ Dortmund were irresistible, the movement and pace going forward had Tottenham chasing shadows. The link up play between Reus, Gonzalo Castro, Aubameyang and the outstanding Henrikh Mkhitaryan was wonderful to watch and showed exactly why Bayern Munich have been dragged back to within five points in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund are certainly one of the form sides in Europe right now and if they continue to perform as they did against Tottenham, it’s difficult to see anybody else lifting the Europa League trophy at Basel’s St. Jakob Park in May.

It has now been four years since an English team reached the final of a European competition, this clash between the second place side in Germany and the second place side in England was another opportunity to gauge where English football stands right now- it was not pleasant viewing from an English perspective.

Yes, Tottenham played a second string team but that shouldn’t take away from the clinical show that Dortmund put on. The quality of football on display from the German side would have been more than enough to defeat any Premier League club on this season’s evidence.

This isn’t the first time we have had a stark reminder of the ground the English clubs have to make up if they are to become a force in European competition again, but the gulf in class here was truly astounding.