Postecoglou delighted with Spurs' 'significant' Hoffenheim victory

Ange Postecoglou was thrilled with Tottenham's resolve as they beat Hoffenheim 3-2 to leave themselves on the brink of the last 16 of the Europa League.

Postecoglou has had to deal with an almighty injury list in recent weeks but his side did the business in Germany, Son Heung-min scoring a brace after James Maddison had netted inside two minutes.

Spurs were forced to hold on after Hoffenheim twice came within one goal of parity and Postecoglou was delighted with the spirit his depleted side showed.

He told TNT Sports: "I thought the senior boys today all really stood up. You need your leaders to stand up and they did tonight.

"I told them to enjoy it. Winning away in Europe, it's a significant victory for us and gives us a good foothold to get into those top eight spots. They enjoyed tonight, we'll recover and get ready for Sunday.

"It's a great position to be in, we want to finish top eight because it gives us an extra week of rest and we'll probably need it around that time."

Postecoglou commented that Maddison's early opener was the key to the victory.

He said: "It's not easy to get away wins in Europe. I was watching the Champions League last night and there was only one away victory so it's tough. Credit to the boys, I thought they were outstanding first half and played really well.

"We looked a bit tired in the second half but hung on. Sonny scored a great goal to give us that extra buffer. We had the school boys out there in the end.

"We wanted to be a bit more aggressive and that is when Madders [James Maddison] is at his best. In the context of the game, we kind of knew if we could score early and put some pressure on them then it would give us a good foothold in the game.

"He was good all night. He got a bit tired in the second half but he caused them a lot of problems."

Postecoglou also revealed striker Dominic Solanke is due to be missing for six more weeks after suffering a knee injury.