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Tottenham 2-2 Bournemouth Stats: Spurs Come From Two Goals Down to Rescue a Point
Some bad luck and a sloppy foul from Kepa Arrizabalaga cost Bournemouth as the Cherries lost a two-goal lead to only draw 2-2 at Tottenham on Sunday.
Andoni Iraola’s men were the better team for much of the contest and led 2-0 through Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson, only for an arguably fortunate Pape Sarr goal and a penalty from Son Heung-min after he was brought down by the Bournemouth goalkeeper to see the spoils shared at Tottenham Hostpur Stadium.
The result leaves Bournemouth in eighth place in the Premier League, five points off the top four and three points off fifth, while Spurs remain 13th.
After their disappointing result at AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday, Spurs looked to respond but did not start the game the way their fans would have hoped.
Cristian Romero was making his first start since 8 December and looked as rusty as one might expect as his errant passes led to excellent early chances for Evanilson and Justin Kluivert, but Guglielmo Vicario was alert to make the required saves.
After 19 minutes, Bournemouth had recorded six shots with four on target, with five of those shots coming inside the penalty area despite having had just six touches in Tottenham’s box. Without Vicario, the game could have been over by then.
Spurs calmed things down and stopped making as many mistakes as the game settled, but they were punished from another sloppy pass in the 42nd minute. Pedro Porro gave the ball away to Milos Kerkez, who ran down the left unopposed and placed a pin-perfect cross into the path of Tavernier, who made no mistake with his finish at the far post.
Bournemouth thought they had doubled their lead in the 52nd minute from an absolutely stunning counter-attack, started by Tavernier winning the ball in his own penalty area and ending with Kluivert scoring at the other end moments later, but Antoine Semenyo had been offside in the build-up to deny what would have been one of the goals of the season.
Ange Postecoglou had made two changes at the break, bringing Son and Lucas Bergvall on for Brennan Johnson and Yves Bissouma, and Son came close to equalising moments after Bournemouth’s disallowed goal when his deflected shot struck the outside of the post.
As well as Romero’s comeback, Micky van de Ven came off the bench to return for the first time since his injury against Elfsborg in January.
Kerkez forced Vicario into another excellent save with a shot at his near post, while Sarr fired wide moments later at the other end as the hosts looked for a leveller.
It was the Cherries who found the net next, though, with Kluivert bamboozling the Spurs defence by letting the ball run across his body before sliding a ball into the path of Evanilson, who dinked Vicario to give Bournemouth a two-goal cushion.
