The drama and tension were unremitting to the last. Tottenham had been in and out and then they were back in again when the substitute Lucas Moura connected with Harry Kane’s cross to snatch the equaliser. Spurs had pressed hard on the front foot throughout an excellent second-half performance and the goal was no more than they deserved.

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But when the full-time whistle sounded, they had to wait. Their Champions League progress depended on them matching Internazionale’s result against PSV Eindhoven in Milan and the score there was 1-1. A late Inter winner would have dumped them out. The seconds ticked like hours. Then, up in the Camp Nou gods, the cheering started.

It came from the travelling Spurs supporters, who had the confirmation. Inter had managed only to draw. Tottenham are through to the last 16 and they can now look forward to Monday’s draw.

It had been labelled Mission Impossible after Spurs took only one point from their opening three Group B ties. But the last-gasp Wembley wins over PSV and Inter gave them hope and here they refused to believe that qualification was not a part of their destiny.

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A little after full time, Mauricio Pochettino was on the pitch, waving up at the Tottenham fans. He wanted to drink in the moment. It was impossibly special – one of the highlights of his four and a half years at the club. To him, the possibilities feel endless. He and his players are determined to go one step further, at least, than last season, when they lost to Juventus in the last 16.

It was an evening of the finest margins. Philippe Coutinho hit the post twice for Barcelona – the first on 44 minutes; the second just before Lucas’s equaliser – and Spurs suffered from a kind of helplessness, knowing that if they were not going to win, they would be vulnerable if Inter did.

Inter trailed early on and, at that point, the result here was redundant. Spurs had one foot in the knockout rounds. But when Inter equalised on 73 minutes, Pochettino’s team stared at the exit. They needed something and, after seeing Jasper Cillessen keep out his close-range header, Lucas provided it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ousmane Dembélé robbed Kyle Walker-Peters early in the first half before finishing neatly past Hugo Lloris to give Barcelona to lead. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters

Spurs had trailed since the seventh minute to Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, which was a personal disaster for Kyle Walker-Peters, on his full Champions League debut, and, in the end, they had to rely upon a result from elsewhere that had previously felt unimaginable.

They also played against what was in effect a Barcelona B team. Lionel Messi was used only as a 63rd minute substitute, as Ernesto Valverde made sweeping changes; his team already assured of qualification. Yet there was an epic quality to Spurs’s resilience, their drive. They could legitimately claim to have dominated Barcelona here in the second half. The celebrations went on long into the night.

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The tone of the evening had been shaped by the Barcelona teamsheet. The predictions had been for changes but not to this extent. The Spanish press expected to see Messi in the starting XI and when he was named on the bench, Tottenham’s hopes had surged. Pochettino was actually laughing in his pre-match TV interview.

Valverde also lined up without Marc-André ter Stegen, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Arturo Vidal and Luis Suárez. But, as Pochettino pointed out, they were still Barcelona; a team loaded with quality.

Pochettino’s boldest selection had been that of Walker-Peters, the 21-year-old right-back, his hand having been forced by the injuries to Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier. Poor Walker-Peters. It was horrible to see how he disintegrated for the early concession; how he took a heavy touch just inside the Barcelona half, after a Spurs free-kick had been cleared and the ball headed back to him by Moussa Sissoko; how he was robbed by Dembélé and then brutally exposed by the forward’s searing pace.

The covering Harry Winks threw himself into an all-or-nothing block only for Dembélé to step inside him and shoot past Hugo Lloris. Dembélé’s running style is so smooth that he appears to float over the turf. Walker-Peters, by contrast, was tied in knots. He would be booked shortly afterwards for a pull on Juan Miranda. His chin was on the floor.

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Spurs stabilised, although they struggled for their usual intensity before the interval. Pochettino put it down to playing “in both stadiums – in Camp Nou and San Siro”. Son Heung-min could not apply a touch to a low Danny Rose cross while he ran through a Thomas Vermaelen slide challenge but could not beat Cillessen when one-on-one.

Spurs found gaps in Barcelona’s unfamiliar back four in the second half and they created chances. Christian Eriksen drew a flying save out of Cillessen, Kane shot wildly after outstripping Clement Lenglet and Son also worked the goalkeeper. Pochettino swapped Walker-Peters, who did block bravely from Coutinho on 54 minutes, with Érik Lamela and he switched Sissoko to right-back. The scene was set for the finale. Rose would fluff a late chance to win it, to ease Tottenham’s nerves, but this is not a team that does things the easy way.