Son Heung-min netted an 88th minute penalty as Spurs came from behind to net two goals in the final twelve minutes and defeat Southampton in their Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round Proper replay at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London.
The sides shared a 1-1 draw over a week ago at St Marys so a replay was needed to determine who would face a home tie with Norwich City in the Last 16 of the competition, and this was the second successive round the hosts had to face a replay after needing an extra game to see of Middlesbrough in the previous round.
The Saints had no such problems in the previous round after netting a comfortable 2-0 home win over Huddersfield Town, and after both sides had fired effort’s straight at each other’s keepers, the visitors began to threaten and flashed a ball across goal before another visitors effort saw Hugo Lloris save smartly with his legs.
Spurs though were the ones to make the early breakthrough, and it was a rather fortuitous one too, as an effort from Tanguy Ndombele took a huge deflection off Saints defender Jack Stephens and found the corner of the net with keeper Angus Gunn wrong-footed.
This didn’t deter the visitors though who continued to threaten the hosts goal, and they came very close to levelling when Danny Ings thumped an effort against the woodwork before Lloris then had to turn away another effort shortly after.
In the 34th minute though Southampton did grab a deserved leveller when after a Nathan Redmond effort had been saved by Lloris, the keeper could only parry into the path of Shane Long who had the simple task of tapping home. It was the least the visitors deserved after their performance so far.
The visitors suffered a set back late on in the half when James Ward-Prowse had to be stretchered off with a knee injury, and the final five minutes saw Spurs playing on the counter attack, but poor decisions meant they were unable to test keeper Gunn, much to the frustration of the home support.
It meant the game was level going into the break with the visitors no doubt the happier of the two sides after being the better side in this one so far. Spurs were lucky to be level in all honesty and were not at their best that was for sure and needed to improve in the second period.
Half Time Tottenham Hotspur 1 Southampton 1
The Saints continued to threaten early in the second period though, and saw two more decent openings pass them by, firstly heading over from close range before secondly totally mishitting across goal and wide from inside the box. Spurs needed to wake up that was for sure.
They so nearly took the lead though when Lucas Moura somehow headed wide from close range, but apart from this it was the visitors who were doing most of the running still.
Another spell of pressure from the Saints saw Lloris flap at dangerous ball into the box but managed to tip it away, before another effort was then blocked as the hosts defence was being worked very hard that was for sure.
The visitors then saw a close range header smartly tipped over by Lloris as they continued to knock on the door, and in the 72nd minute they finally broke it down when Ings ran into the box before sending a lovely effort beyond Lloris into the far corner, and The Saints looked like they were going to win this tie.
But, this seemed to galvanise the hosts into action finally, and six minutes after going behind they levelled when Moura burst through to fire beyond Gunn into the bottom corner, and the tie was all square once again heading into the final ten minutes.
Suddenly it was the visitors who were doing most of the defending now and Spurs sent a wayward header off target as they searched for what looked unlikely for most of the contest in the shape of a winner, and guess what, in the 88th minute the hosts had a huge chance to find one.
Dele Alli, who had come on as a second half substitute, produced a wonderful pass to release Son in on goal, and as he rounded keeper Gunn he was adjudged to have been fouled, meaning a penalty and a yellow card for the keeper. VAR did check the decision and they agreed it was a spot kick.
Son then duly picked himself up and slotted home the spot kick, and Spurs had somehow turned this one around and won a game they didn’t really deserve to win. Southampton must of wondered how they had lost this, but it will be Spurs who take on Norwich City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Round Five.
Full Time Tottenham Hotspur 3 Southampton 2
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