WEMBLEY, London — Luka Modrić chases down Christian Eriksen with all the hopelessness of a dazed jockey trying to catch his runaway horse. The Croatian midfielder tries to narrow the stretch of green that’s opened up between them, but he’s powerless to stop Eriksen motoring towards goal.

Spurs score their third of the evening and the European Champions are beaten.

If ever there was an enduring image of last night’s thrilling, breakneck encounter with Real Madrid, then this is surely it.

For Spurs fans, it felt like a cosmic shift; the triumph of Tottenham’s future over Tottenham’s past.

Modrić has moved on to better things since leaving White Hart Lane in 2012. After four mesmeric seasons in North London, the former Dinamo Zagreb star is now peerless in his field. The best deep-lying playmaker in world football, according to most. With three Champions League medals to back it up.

But it’s Eriksen now who runs the show for Spurs and perhaps this was the night we finally moved on from our diminutive Balkan maestro. At last, closure. A symbolic changing of the guard.

‘It’s not all about Kane, when you’ve got the Dane‘, cried Martin Tyler from the gantry, as Spurs’ flawless counterattack reached its conclusion.

Never a truer word spoken.

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Now to win the group

It took a good dose of restraint not to cook up a 3,000 word Why Spurs CAN Win the Champions League longread this morning. Watching Mousa Dembélé kick Sergio Ramos up the arse or Dele Alli swagger about the Wembley turf like he was Tyler Durden in a fur coat. Why on earth not, my idiot human brain wondered. Who couldn’t we beat on our day?

But then, sobering, tedious self-control took over. As much as this performance will send shockwaves throughout Europe, or at least make some of the super clubs a little more uneasy about drawing us in the knockouts, our first aim must be to win the group. Which can be realized with a single victory from one of our last two games. Dortmund at Westfalenstadion and APOEL at Wembley.

A great result, then—historic even, as per Jonathan Wilson—but there’s plenty of work to do yet. It would be almost vintage Spurs to talk about aspirations of winning Europe’s biggest prize, only to be knocked out in the next round in a whimpering slump. With any luck, Mauricio Pochettino has impressed on his players that it’s far from job complete.

What’s that, Harry? You think you can win it?

‘Definitely, why not? We have to believe. Maybe nobody who watched that will want to play us although everyone in the Champions League is a good team. It will give us a lot of confidence and belief and we have to build on it.’

Oh. I see.

Kiev here we come?