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Credit: Tottenham Hotspur FC
Fulham earned a point at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and denied Jose Mourinho’s Spurs from moving up to third in the Premier League after missed opportunities cost the home side all three points.
Harry Kane’s powerful headed finish put Spurs in control at the break only for Ivan Cavaleiro’s 74th-minute equaliser to deny the home side from moving up to third in the table.
Two glorious chances in the first half from Heung-Min Son were denied by Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola who produced two outstanding acrobatic saves to keep his side in the contest.
The introduction of Ademola Lookman with 20 minutes left to play sparked life into the visitors as the RB Leipzig loanee produced a marvellous cross to assist Cavaleiro’s leveller and put his side within two points of Brighton & Hove Albion in 17th.
The Lilywhites went into the match knowing victory would see them close the gap on Liverpool and Manchester United at the top of the table, while Fulham hoped to snatch a result to aid their task of escaping the bottom three.
The two sides met amid Jose Mourinho’s comments that he had no sympathy for Scott Parker after he stressed his fury that the game was rescheduled with only 48 hours notice, but there seemed to be no animosity between the two managers when they embraced in the tunnel prior to kick-off.
Fulham started the game brightly, playing the majority of the opening four minutes inside the Tottenham half.
Winning a free-kick 40-yards from Hugo Lloris’ net, Cavaleiro’s cross came within inches of centre-backs Joachim Andersen and Tosin Adarabioyo who both failed to make a convincing connection that would test the 34-year old goalkeeper.
Chelsea loanee Ruben Loftus-Cheek asked another question of Spurs’ defence with a shot from the edge of the box but that was quickly closed down by Sergio Reguilon.
The Spaniard then found himself inside Fulham’s box moments later with two successive strikes from 12-yards; scuffing the first effort and blasting the second over the bar.
Tanguy Ndombele’s surge from deep orchestrated Tottenham’s second chance of the game when he spread the ball out wide to Serge Aurier.
The wing-back delivered an inviting first-time ball to Son who poked the ball goalwards only for Areola to make an excellent point-blank save with his feet.
Areola, who has the fourth-best save percentage in the Premier League this season (3.9), denied the South Korean once more with an unbelievable cat-like save to his left-hand side.
However, there was no stopping Tottenham’s third attempt in as many minutes when Kane’s diving downward header steered home an inch-perfect curled cross from Reguilon to open the scoring and make it his 36th goal in London Derbies.
The goal also marked Kane’s 32nd strike since Mourinho took charge of his first game as Spurs boss on the 25th November 2019 against West Ham United.
The Cottagers escaped a double blow when Kane skewed a six-yard effort well wide on the half-hour mark; a chance the England captain usually executes with aplomb.
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg’s tame effort on goal concluded the first-half of action as Spurs entered the interval leading for the ninth time (56%) this campaign – second to only Manchester City – compared to Parker’s men, who had not taken a single point from losing positions this season and have the worst second-half record in the league.
A Messi-esque run from Moussa Sissoko opened the second half in style as he nearly scored one of the goals of the century, let alone the season, before a perfectly timed tackle from Adarabioyo cut out the Frenchman just as he was about to pull the trigger.
The energetic, end-to-end football we saw in the first 45 continued when Reguilon misjudged the flight of the ball leaving Kenny Tete free inside the box, but the Dutch international could only find the side netting to the annoyance of teammate Bobby Decordova-Reid.
Reid had his chance five minutes later when he stood over the free-kick after Højbjerg upended Loftus-Cheek on the edge of the box.
The striker, who has scored six goals while playing the majority of this season in an unorthodox right-wing back role, blasted his shot straight into the wall and wasted a good opportunity to draw level.
Lookman’s introduction saw Reid resume to his more defensive position when he replaced Tete, but the Jamaican was nowhere to be seen when Son burst down the left and shot low only to be denied by the inside of the post which allowed Areola to smuggle the ball.
Following the nature of the game, Fulham escaped down the other end as Lookman skipped past Davinson Sánchez and crossed from the byline towards Cavaleiro who headed firmly into the corner to score the equaliser with 13 minutes left on the clock.
Lookman impact nearly saw his side go 2-1 up when he slipped in Loftus-Cheek. Lloris was equal to it when he rushed off his line to snuff out the shot.
Attackers Erik Lamela and Carlos Vinicius were then brought on as Mourinho tried to grab ahold of the game and produce a winning goal.
Son found some space in the box and then squared the ball across for Reguilon to tap home the winner, but the flag was raised and VAR confirmed the clear offside offence.
Paul Tierney’s final whistle marked a frustrating night for Tottenham but a promising one for Fulham, who look unrecognisable from the relegation-fodder side we saw at the start of the season.
The point puts Parker’s team two points off Brighton in 17th with two games in hand while Spurs stay put in fifth – six points off Manchester United at the summit.
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