It took just two seconds or so of football to show exactly why Thomas Frank gave the green light to Tottenham making the permanent signing of Mathys Tel.
The 20-year-old had drifted out to the left-hand side of the pitch in the final five minutes of the European U21 Championships quarter-final against Denmark when he received the ball from substitute Matthis Abline. The Tottenham man took a couple of touches, forcing the defender to step back in concern as he advanced into the box.
Tel used that space to curl an inch-perfect right-footed shot into the far corner of the net. Tottenham fans will have seen the similarities to the goals their captain Son Heung-min curled home most weeks in the Premier League. Tel's strike sparked wild celebrations alongside his Spurs and international team-mate Wilson Odobert and others for within two minutes, France had turned around a 2-1 deficit and the Spurs man's exquisite finish sent them into the semi-finals where they will meet Germany on Wednesday night.
To reduce another livewire performance from Tel into just two seconds would be doing the young attacker a disservice but it was a moment that showed how a youngster with plenty of Champions League experience has no fear of the big stage or the big moments. His professional career so far has been all about him being thrown in and having to sink or swim.
The previous 85 minutes of the game in the Futbal Tatran Arena in Slovakia had brought constant troubles for the Danish defence as they tried to deal with Tel, who began the game in a lone striker role. Forged by those early months thrown in as the target man at Tottenham in Dominic Solanke and Richarlison's injury-enforced absences, Tel used everything he had learned in those tough moments.
He held the ball up well, spreading it out to the flanks or used numerous neat backflicks to send it into his team-mates' paths. Sometimes he would take it on himself and beat a man or two.
Tel showed his terrific technique in the first half with a powerful dipping volley after a headed ball fell his way out wide, just inside the right-side of the Denmark box. It deserved to make the net bulge but was met by an equally impressive flying reaction save from Danish goalkeeper Andreas Jungdal.
The 23-year-old goalkeeper has his own Spurs connection, having spent the second half of the season on loan from Cremonese with Belgian side Westerlo, playing behind Tottenham's soon-to-be-arriving centre-back Luka Vuskovic and academy midfielder Alfie Devine.
Tel had an effort disallowed in the second half when a team-mate was adjudged to have been offside in the build-up by VAR and the French media praised him after the game for the dangerous nature of his performance despite a lack of service at times, as well as the never-give-up attitude he displayed.
For Tel, he knows all eyes are on him after the north London club made his loan move from Bayern Munich a permanent one. It will cost Spurs £29.8million (€35million), plus a potential further £4.2million (€5million) in add-ons. Tottenham to managed to knock around £15million off the original £45million option to buy the player at the end of his £8.5million loan spell.
The transfer only went through because Frank agreed to it. football.londonreported soon after the Dane's appointment that he had analysed Tel and was excited about developing him into the talent that both Spurs and Bayern believed he could become when they signed him.
The new head coach then confirmed that in his first club interview when he said: "Very, very excited about Mathys signing with a permanent deal. I think he's a very talented player that can play across the front four positions. He's a goalscorer that we can develop even further to be more consistent in his all-round game but also to more consistently land in the right positions in the box. So I'm looking forward to it."
Sunday's performance for France showed exactly what Tel is capable of when that all-round game clicks and it also showcased a lot of what staff inside Tottenham had felt about the player and why they always believed there was something special to develop despite the difficulties faced in his opening months in a new league, new country and a struggling team when he was being relied upon to be a battering ram in the fastest, most physical competition in the world.
Spurs staff last season saw Tel as strong technically with a top notch training mentality while being a positive character within the squad. With his lack of minutes for Bayern ahead of his move, plenty of fitness and conditioning work was required and he will be benefiting from that now during this tournament with France as he will when pre-season begins next month. He already looks more powerful and broader than he did when he first arrived in February.
The 20-year-old still needs to improve further physically, particularly with his explosiveness on and off the ball, and the stamina required for the Premier League, while continuing to improve his growing ability in one vs one duels against defenders. While this goal did not suggest it, the consistency of his finishing also requires work and while Tel is always eager to track back, the defensive work when he gets there needs more finessing.
football.london reported last week that the youngster's performance against Nottingham Forest at home in April was held up internally as the best of the spell, with great energy and creativity from the flank, and there were plenty of similarities to his performance in Slovakia.
Frank may well have watched Sunday's match while nodding his head happily for his first big decision at Tottenham looks to be a good one. With plenty of work from Tel and coaching from Frank and his staff, the first transfer of his reign could be one people look back on and remember for all the right reasons.