Sarr and Son rescue point against Cherries

A spirited fightback salvaged a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw with AFC Bournemouth at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Trailing at half-time to Marcus Tavernier’s goal just before the break, we fell further behind when Evanilson netted for the visitors and it looked a long way back. But we responded immediately, Pape Matar Sarr with a lofted effort to make it 2-1 and the comeback was completed in the 84th minute when skipper Heung-Min Son converted from the penalty spot. That meant a first-ever home draw with Bournemouth in the eighth staging of this fixture.

There was good news on the injury front, with defenders Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven both getting valuable minutes in their return to action. Romero was back in the side following his long injury lay-off, featuring for the first time since early December, and perhaps there was a touch of rustiness as he gifted the ball to Evanilson 25 yards from goal with just seconds on the clock, only for the Bournemouth striker to be denied by a fine one-handed save from Guglielmo Vicario. And it needed another excellent save from Vicario, this time with his legs, to keep out Justin Kluivert on four minutes after we gave the ball away again.

It was an open affair in those early stages, played at a nice tempo and we went close in the seventh minute, Dominic Solanke’s far-post header cleared away by James Hill. Both sides were knocking the ball around well however the chances dried up until the 42nd minute when the visitors took the lead. We were on the break but Milos Kerkez intercepted Pedro Porro’s pass intended for Brennan Johnson and the Bournemouth left-back surged 40 yards down the flank before delivering a deep cross which found Tavernier and he slotted past Vicario on the stretch from the corner of the six-yard box.

A double switch at the break saw Son and Lucas Bergvall replace Johnson and Yves Bissouma but we had a let-off seven minutes after the restart when Kluivert converted a breakaway attack, only for VAR to rule it out for a clear offside in the build-up. At the other end, a trademark right-footed curler from Son struck the outside of the post in what was our best chance up until that point.

Romero’s comeback lasted just over an hour as he was replaced by another returning defender, van de Ven seeing his first action since the Elfsborg game on 30 January, with James Maddison also coming on for Rodrigo Bentancur and we fashioned a chance straight away, Maddison teeing up Sarr who drilled wide from 18 yards. We were punished for the miss almost immediately, Kluivert threading a pass through to release Evanilson in the 65th minute and he clipped the ball over Vicario for 2-0, although the deficit was reduced two minutes later. Bergvall had just cracked a 25-yard effort against the post before we attacked again, Sarr collecting the ball out on the right and only he will know whether his ball in was a cross or a shot, but either way, it looped over Kepa Arrizabalaga and in off the far post.

And we were level from the penalty spot with seven minutes remaining. It was a wonderful move leading up to the decision – van de Ven to Son, in-field to Djed Spence and on to Maddison – who then played a superb through ball to release Son down the inside left channel and he was wiped out by Kepa for the penalty. Up stepped the skipper to cooly send the Cherries’ goalkeeper the wrong way and it was all square. That led to a fairly frantic finish, both sides going for the win but no-one could create that one clear chance and we had to settle for the point at the start of a big week with AZ Alkmaar here on Thursday for the second leg of our UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Sarr 67, Son 84 (pen); Bournemouth – Tavernier 42, Evanilson 65.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Bentancur, Bissouma, Maddison; Bournemouth – Tavernier, Semenyo, Huijsen.

Referee: John Brooks.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Sunny, gentle breeze, 17 degrees.

Attendance: 61,178.