AT LEAST no one could accuse Thomas Frank of being boring here.
The Dane had copped serious flak for dud displays containing no attacking intent whatsoever, most notably in the 4-1 humiliation to arch-rivals Arsenal on Sunday.
But here his side netted three at the home of the Champions League holders, with Randal Kolo Muani scoring two against his parent club after teeing up Richarlison for the opener.
The bad news was Paris Saint-Germain hit back with FIVE of their own, including a hat-trick from Vitinha plus strikes from Fabian Ruiz and Willian Pacho.
PSG ended up with ten men when Lucas Hernandez caught fellow sub Xavi Simons with an elbow in injury time, but by then the game was done.
It was a defeat in which Frank’s backline was consistently breached – and yet it felt a world away from the embarrassment at the Emirates.
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In fact it was reminiscent of August’s Super Cup against PSG, where Frank hatched a back-five plan that saw his side take a 2-0 lead, only to ship two late goals and lose on penalties.
Frank afterwards that encounter between the Champions League and Europa League winners described it as a “special operation” which was working, but ultimately “the patient died”.
You could say the same here as Spurs went with a narrow 4-4-2 formation and limited PSG, initially at least, to long shots.
They even took the lead on 35 minutes when Lucas Bergvall’s clever flick played in Archie Gray, whose cross was diverted back the other way by Muani’s header for Richarlison to nod in.
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Spurs fans went potty in the far corner of the Parc des Princes, cheekily singing ‘Champions of Europe, we know what we are’.
They would just have been relieved at the reaction to Sunday that their team was showing, but then Vitinha levelled up on the stroke of half-time with an exocet missile of a shot.
Given how things have gone recently for Spurs, it would not have been a surprise if they had imploded at that point.
Instead, they rallied and retook the lead.
Pedro Porro swung a corner to the far post which Richarlison headed on for Gray to flick goalwards.
Willian Pacho headed it onto the bar and away, only for Kolo Muani to batter a volley back in off Marquinhos on the Brazilian’s 500th PSG appearance.
Kolo Muani refused to celebrate out of respect to his employers, but inside he must have been buzzing after breaking his Spurs duck.
This time the lead lasted an even shorter period as Vitinha, again, sweetly struck into the far corner, this time with his left foot, three minutes later.
Spurs were denied a chance to take stock as six minutes on, PSG had turned the tie around completely.
Cristian Romero fired a risky pass to Sarr who lost it under pressure from sub Lucas Hernandez, allowing quick-thinking Joao Neves to play in Ruiz who fired past Guglielmo Vicario.
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The hosts then made it three goals in 12 second-half minutes as Sarr failed to clear away a corner, the ball fell loose and there was Pacho to fire home.
Game over, or so we thought.
But there was still time for Kolo Muani to strike again.
Vitinha had his one mis-step of the game by losing the ball, allowing Kolo Muani to ghost round the backline and drill into the far corner.
Yet once again any hope of a dramatic comeback was quickly extinguished when referee Felix Zwayer blew for a penalty when Vitinha’s shot struck Romero’s outstretched arm.
Former Wolves man Vitinha did the honours from 12 yards to complete his treble and kill off the patient for good.
But given how badly this week had been going for Frank, there was something restorative about this performance, if not the result.
Next to no Spurs supporters would have been expecting to win here.
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But what they wanted from their team – and specifically their manager – was to give them something, anything, to be excited about going forward.
Frank and his team delivered that, at least.
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