Timo Werner’s penalty left Tottenham needing to produce another Champions League turnaround as RB Leipzig took charge of their last-16 meeting.
The striker’s 58th minute spot-kick proved the only goal of the game, earning the Bundesliga outfit a 1-0 win to take back to Germany for the second leg in three weeks’ time, though in truth Jose Mourinho may be relieved that his side are not facing more of a deficit.
The visitors were almost ahead inside two minutes when wing-back Angelino, on loan from Manchester City, rattled onto the post via the knee of Hugo Lloris, while Steven Bergwijn had what would prove a rare glimpse of goal at the other end, denied by a smart stop from Peter Gulacsi.
Patrick Schick headed just wide from a corner before Werner wasted the best chance of the first-half, toe-poking straight at Lloris after taking too long to get the ball out of his feet when in on goal.
Gulacsi was called into action again at the start of the second half, getting down well to push clear after Lucas had deflected Serge Aurier’s cross towards goal, but shortly before the hour mark, it was the hosts that found the breakthrough they deserved.
Ben Davies was the guilty party, sucked in as Konrad Laimer cushioned the ball past him leaving referee Cuneyt Cakir no choice but to point to the spot, and Werner stepped up to arrow home.
It should have been two moments later when Werner’s wonderful dummy gave Schick a glorious opening but the Czech international sidefooted too close to Lloris.
Mourinho’s response was to switch to a back three, sending on Tanguy Ndombele and Erik Lamela and pushing Bergwijn up alongside Lucas, and the change of shape prompted some improvement.
And had it not been for the excellent Gulacsi they would have had a leveller, the former Liverpool stopper springing to his right to tip Giovanni Lo Celso’s free-kick onto the post.
