Full Time After Extra Time This is a live match. Extra Time Half Time

Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United. Premier League.

8:15pm, Thursday 27th April 2023.

Tottenham Hotspur StadiumAttendance61,586.

Tottenham Hotspur 2

P Porro (56th minute)
H Son (79th minute)

Manchester United 2

J Sancho (7th minute)
M Rashford (44th minute)

Latest Premier League Odds

Watch Live

Tottenham 2-2 Man Utd: Spurs recover from two goals down to draw as Heung-Min Son scores late leveller

Report and free match highlights as Spurs come from two goals down to draw with Man Utd; Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford scored for the visitors: Pedro Porro and Heung-Min Son were on target for interim boss Ryan Mason's side

Nick Wright

Comment and Analysis @nicholaspwright

Friday 28 April 2023 07:01, UK

Tottenham fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Manchester United thanks to Heung-Min Son’s late leveller in a pulsating game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Erik ten Hag's side appeared on course to establish an eight-point cushion in fourth place as clinically-taken first-half goals from Jadon Sancho (7) and Marcus Rashford (44) put them in control.

But Spurs, wounded from their 6-1 thrashing by Newcastle, after which Cristian Stellini was sacked as interim boss and replaced by Ryan Mason, pulled one back through Pedro Porro (56) then forced a deserved equaliser when Son converted Harry Kane's low cross (79).

The hosts had enough chances to take all three points in the second half, while Manchester United will rue their own failure to convert their earlier opportunities, with Bruno Fernandes crashing an effort off the underside of the bar when it looked easier to score.

The draw takes Spurs up to fifth, six points behind Manchester United having played two games more, and ensures United still have work to do to be sure of Champions League qualification.

Player ratings

Tottenham: Forster (7); Romero (7), Dier (5), Lenglet (6); Porro (7), Skipp (7), Hojbjerg (7), Perisic (7); Richarlison (5), Kane (8), Son (8).

Subs: Kulusevski (7), Danjuma (6), Davies (6), Tanganga (6)

Man Utd: De Gea (7); Wan-Bissaka (6), Lindelof (7), Shaw (7), Dalot (7); Casemiro (6), Eriksen (7), Fernandes (8); Antony (6), Rashford (8), Sancho (7).

Subs: Martial (5), Fred (6), Weghorst (6), Malacia (6).

Player of the match: Harry Kane

How the draw played out

Mason vowed that he would put out a team to "excite" Tottenham supporters in his programme notes but it was more of the same early on as Manchester United, like Newcastle, quickly exposed their glaring defensive frailties.

Rashford was left in space to pick up the ball between the lines, before driving through two Spurs challenges and feeding Sancho, who punished more slack defending to curl home a fine finish.

It was clinical from United, the opener coming from their first attack, and at the other end, Spurs lacked the same cutting edge, their issues typified by Richarlison, who shot too close to David de Gea then tried a cut-back when better placed for a shot.

The visitors continued to slice through Sputs' defence, going close to adding a second after 19 minutes when Sancho's deflected effort was headed off the line by Ivan Perisic after his initial shot had been blocked by Cristian Romero inside the box.

The home fans were soon voicing their displeasure towards chairman Daniel Levy, who was also targeted by a small 'Levy Out' banner in the stands, and Spurs continued to flounder on the pitch, needing Fraser Foster, in for the injured Hugo Lloris, to twice deny Rashford and also parry an effort from Fernandes.

Spurs had openings of their own amid the toing and froing of the first half, but De Gea could not be beaten, making a one-handed save from Perisic's flicked header following a corner then making the crucial, one-on-one block from the same player just moments before United's second goal.

Again, it did not take much for the visitors to find a way through, with Rashford latching onto Fernandes long pass, outpacing Eric Dier and crashing home a clinical finish for his 16th Premier League goal of the campaign, the ball hitting the back of the net just 26 seconds after De Gea had denied Perisic.

It seemed a mood of resignation had set in among the home supporters at that point but they started the second half strongly, their raised intensity setting the tone for the comeback as United began to tire following the exertions of their FA Cup semi-final win over Brighton at Wembley on Sunday.

Porro took his goal superbly, taking a touch and then crashing home a powerful right-footed finish after Kane's close-range effort had been blocked, but United almost mustered an instant response, Fernandes dancing through their static defence and sending his shot against the underside of the bar.

From there, though, it was all Spurs. Son missed a glorious chance when he screwed a first-time shot wide from a cross by the excellent Kane, while Dier spurned an even better opportunity when he mistimed a free header.

Eventually, though, the pressure told, with Son forcing home another Kane centre. The South Korean and his team-mates immediately sprinted back into their own half, desperate for a winner which did not come, but the comeback did at least show they are still fighting after the debacle at St James' Park.

Manchester United, meanwhile, will rue their failure to hold on, and another disappointing result in an away game against a big-six rival.

Ten Hag: 90 per cent not enough

Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag in his press conference:

"We have the worst schedule also in the Premier League, that will not change. You have to take that. You can't use it as an excuse. The time is enough time to recover, so our players are in demand to be ready. Today they were not ready.

"We thought 90 per cent is enough, that's why we gave balls away. And when you don't do your jobs in positioning, you concede goals.

"After half time there was a difference, we lost control because we are not all secure. Then you have to go into the fight. When you lose the battles, don't have possession and don't have chances you concede goals. That's what happened. Then you have to be satisfied and take that point.

"It has to be [100 per cent]. You have to bring it every time. I know that they are not robots and it's a tough schedule. But we can't accept it when you are playing for Man Utd and you area wearing this shirt.

"You have to give [100 per cent] in every occasion, every game. And as a team, you have to manage the game, get the win, and that makes everyone happy and satisfied.

"But the basis is always to give everything, and that's how you have to prepare as a player, that you are ready for the game, for the battle, for the fight."

Mason: We showed big personality

Spurs interim boss Ryan Mason in his press conference:

"Big character, big personality, stuck together, kept believing, acted as a team throughout the whole game.

"That pleases me after what happened at the weekend because we probably didn't have that as a group.

"Off the back of how the first half went, in terms of the scoreline, to go out and stick together, fight for each other and really get the fans involved - and I felt like they helped us massively - is pleasing.

"It proves a lot to me that I already thought about this group but to see it on the pitch is a good feeling."

"We created many chances in the second half, in the fist half as well. Maybe if we were a bit more clinical, the flow of the game would have been different.

"But in the second half we kept pushing, we had some really clear openings. Maybe if we had got the second goal earlier, we could have kept pushing.

"I felt like, once we scored the second, the lads had invested so much energy that we went a little bit flat. But to come off 2-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time is a positive."

Son: Half-time anger sparked comeback

Tottenham's Heung-Min Son to BT Sport:

"I thought we didn't deserve to be 2-0 down in the first half. We played quite well, we had the chances to score but we weren't clinical enough.

"I think in the second half we showed great character, but we're not happy we didn't get three points. The final decision making wasn't perfect.

"We didn't want to let the fans down, we wanted to give everything and that was the dressing room speech. We couldn't let the game go. We were really angry about it, we didn't deserve to be 2-0 down at half-time. I think the lads showed really good character.

"Football is all about the fans. The last week was unacceptable and we didn't want to repeat that. We feel really, really sorry for the performance and result [at Newcastle] and today we wanted to bring a good energy. With them, we really appreciated their support. They were fighting with us."

The Kane, Son connection - Opta stats

Tottenham's Harry Kane has now assisted 24 goals for Heung-Min Son in the Premier League, the joint-most by a single player to a particular team-mate in the competition, alongside Frank Lampard for Didier Drogba.
Tottenham have ended a run of four successive Premier League defeats against Manchester United, avoiding defeat for the first time since their 6-1 win in October 2020.
Tottenham have now come from two goals down to avoid defeat three times in the Premier League this season (3-2 vs Bournemouth and 2-2 vs Brentford also), their most in a single Premier League campaign.
Marcus Rashford's goal and assist tonight took his tally to 21 for goal involvements in the Premier League this season (16 goals, 5 assists), only registering more in 2019-20 (24).
Six of Bruno Fernandes' seven Premier League assists for Manchester United this season have been for Marcus Rashford - only Kevin De Bruyne has provided more assists for one player's goals in the Premier League in 2022-23 (8 for Erling Haaland).

What's next?

Spurs are next in action in a crucial game against Liverpool, which will inevitably have a bearing on the configuration of the Premier League's top four, live on Super Sunday, kick-off 4.30pm, while Man Utd entertain Aston Villa on the same day at an earlier kick-off time of 2pm.