Football
James Capps 4y

Son 7/10, Aurier 5/10 as late Spurs lapse force FA Cup replay

Tottenham Hotspur face an FA Cup Fourth Round replay after relinquishing a lead late on to draw 1-1 with Southampton at St Mary's.

- Stream all FA Cup action on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

Son Heung-Min opened the scoring when he drilled the ball home from the edge of the box following excellent work by Giovani Lo Celso, but Southampton substitute Sofiane Boufal fired in an excellent finish on 87 minutes after Spurs' Serge Aurier was caught dawdling in possession deep in his own half.

Positives

There were some very good individual performances from Jose's Mourinho's side, with loan duo Gedson Fernandes and Lo Celso putting in displays that suggest the pair could be important cogs in the Spurs engine over the next few years.

Negatives

The visitors really should have been out of sight in the first half, with Son and Lucas Moura both missing chances you'd have expected them to take, and their profligacy in front of goal will only accelerate Mourinho's efforts to sign a striker before the January transfer window closes.

Manager rating out of 10

6 -- Mourinho's team selection shows he's taking the FA Cup seriously as he looks to end Tottenham's trophy drought, and his introduction of Erik Lamela early in the second half injected some added impetus that helped Spurs take the lead.

Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best, players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)

GK Hugo Lloris, 6 -- The Tottenham No. 1 didn't have a huge deal to do when it came to shot-stopping at St Mary's, but showed excellent handling when faced with crosses and long-range efforts, and his return looks to have provided a calming presence to the Spurs back four.

DF Serge Aurier, 5 -- The Ivorian loves to bomb forward on the overlap, but we didn't see much of the right-back in the opposition half, and in his own defensive third, the former Paris Saint-Germain man gave the ball away cheaply on the way to Southampton's late equaliser.

DF Toby Alderweireld, 6 -- The ex-Saint quietly went about his business, and used his excellent positioning to extinguish embers of Southampton danger.

DF Davinson Sanchez, 6 -- The combative centre-half had one or two nervous moments when crosses came into the box, but played his part in keeping out the on-form Saints forward Danny Ings.

DF Japhet Tanganga, 7 -- The youngster continues to look right at home in the Spurs backline, and was on hand to head a goal-bound Ings shot off the line in the first half.

MF Gedson Fernandes, 6 -- On his first start for Spurs, the 19-year-old put in a decent display, shutting down attacks and keeping things simple on the deck. The Benfica loanee looks to have all the ingredients of a Mourinho midfielder, but with his manager keen to avoid a replay, he was replaced by the more attack-minded Lamela after 55 minutes.

MF Harry Winks, 7 -- Much of the Spurs threat came on the counter attack, and Winks was excellent in distributing diagonal balls to stretch the Saints defence and cause problems.

MF Son Heung-Min, 7 -- The South Korean provided an accurate drilled finish to open the scoring just before the hour mark, but the left-winger could quite easily have had a hat trick had he been a bit more ruthless in front of goal.

MF Dele Alli, 6 -- The advanced midfielder looked to have got himself in behind the Southampton backline early on but a heavy touch denied him the chance to finish, in what was the 23-year-old's only real sniff at goal. Replaced by Eric Dier shortly after Southampton's leveler.

MF Giovani Lo Celso, 7 -- The Argentine is clearly a very astute technician, and the man on loan from Real Betis was the chief architect of the opening goal with a bursting run from inside his own half before releasing Lamela, who in turn assisted Son to score.

FW Lucas Moura, 6 -- The Brazilian should've buried the ball home when he had just Angus Gunn to beat but the Southampton goalkeeper made a superb save to deny him.

Substitutes

Erik Lamela, 7 -- The attacking midfielder got an assist to his name just a few minutes after coming on when he laid the ball for Son to fire home, and the 27-year-old looked generally lively.

Eric Dier, N/A -- Brought on immediately after Boufal's equaliser, and didn't have time to make any impact.

^ Back to Top ^