MAURICIO POCHETTINO saluted his Tottenham “heroes” as they took a huge step towards reaching the UEFA Champions League (UCL) quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the last 16 first leg Wednesday.

Pochettino’s side had been under the cosh as Dortmund dominated the first half at Wembley, but Hugo Lloris kept them level with a series of fine saves.

That set the stage for a sublime second half from the Spurs, who were sparked into life by a fine finish from South Korea forward Son Heung-min.

Son’s fourth goal in his last four appearances took him to 16 for the season, but none has been as priceless as this one.

Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen capped his own powerful performance when he swept in their second goal in the closing stages and substitute Fernando Llorente’s late third put the seal on a remarkable result.

Insisting his players deserved all the praise after emerging from a gruelling schedule with their best result of the season, Pochettino said: “I want to congratulate my players one more time. It was a fantastic game, a massive effort.

“My players are heroes. They deserve a lot of praise for the effort they are doing this season. It is amazing.”

Although Tottenham still have to survive the second leg at Signal Iduna Park on March 5, they have a golden opportunity to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 2011.

“It is a very good result but it is only the first leg. When you have a team in front of you like Dortmund you need to respect them,” Pochettino said.

It was an especially impressive success for Pochettino given he was without the injured Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Danny Rose and Ben Davies.

Pochettino devised a clever game plan that eventually frustrated Dortmund and secured Tottenham’s first ever Champions League knockout-round win at home.

With Rose and Davies sidelined, Pochettino deployed center-back Vertonghen out of position at left wing-back and switched to a three-man defense that stifled the Bundesliga leaders.

“It is my job to prepare the strategy. Maybe today everyone will say it was a fantastic decision. If it was a different result, people might say I’m the worst coach in the world,” he said.

“The first half was very difficult. We didn’t feel the confidence to play.

“We were a little bit lucky because when Son scored it was a massive boost to our confidence.”

Lucas Moura gave Tottenham an early spark when he latched onto Davinson Sanchez’s header and smashed a volley just wide from the edge of the area.

Juan Foyth gifted Dortmund their first sight of goal when he dwelt on the ball too long and was alertly dispossessed by Christian Pulisic.

But Lloris spared Foyth’s blushes as he blocked Pulisic’s shot at the near post.

Meanwhile, defending champion Real Madrid overcame a spirited Ajax to win the first leg of its Champions League round-of-16 match 2-1 Wednesday and take a big step toward the quarterfinals.

Substitute Marco Asensio scored a late winner to put Madrid in a strong position going into the second leg March 5.(SD-Agencies)