HARRY Christmas! Harry Kane scored a late penalty to rescue a point for Tottenham after the fella with the beard had given Norwich a late Christmas present.
The Canaries were on course for a priceless victory when Serge Aurier’s bizarre own goal put them 2-1 up.
Harry Kane confidently slotted home the late spot-kick to hand Spurs a point at Carrow RoadCredit: PA:Press Association
Teemu Pukki looked on confused as his effort was controversially ruled out by VARCredit: Reuters
But Kane’s spot-kick salvo earned a draw that, in truth did neither side any favours.
Aurier’s own goal was so ridiculous it would not have looked out of place in a pantomime.
But it means when you look to see who is behind fourth-placed Chelsea on Sunday morning, Tottenham will still be there as Jose Mourinho’s men missed the chance to jump into the Champions League places.
And Spurs only have themselves to blame after another match of shambolic defending. They have now conceded SEVENTEEN in 10 matches in all competitions under Mourinho.
As for Norwich, they should be heartened by a spirited display which might have brought more reward had they not had a first half goal ruled out by a VAR decision which was as mean-spirited as it was correct.
Love was in the air at Carrow Road as one young chap proposed to his girlfriend on the pitch before kick-off. Unfortunately for him and the crowd calling for her to decline, she said yes!
Both managers made four changes to their starting line-ups after Boxing Day.
Mourinho started with a 3-5-2 with a midfield including record £65million summer signing Tanguy Ndombele, who asked not to be selected for Thursday’s 2-1 win over Brighton.
And the Frenchman showed another lack of heart when he almost gifted Norwich a 10th minute lead after bumping into team-mate Christian Eriksen.
The Canaries’ German playmaker Marco Stiepermann picked up the loose ball, burst into the box and toe-poked a shot which Spurs keeper Paulo Gazzaniga did well to tip wide of his right post.
Dele Alli then blazed Harry Kane’s square ball over the bar when he should have scored before home keeper Tim Krul pulled off a great block to keep out a shot from Kane after Toby Alderweireld’s long ball had put the England captain through on goal.
Regular Norwich watchers will tell you their team have played well in the first half of matches recently.
They certainly matched in the opening exchanges as they took an 18th minute lead.
Mourinho may have improved the North Londoners results, but their defending still leaves a bit to be desired.
They arrived here having conceded TEN goals in their first seven Premier League games under the Special One.
Once again Mourinho’s men were masters of their own downfall as Juan Foyth lost the ball to Emiliano Buendia and Vrancic ran through to side-foot past Gazzaniga, who right wrist appeared to have been made of sand.
It was the Bosnian’s first-ever Premier League goal on only his second top-flight start.
JUAN MISTAKE TOO MANY
With the Spurs’ defence, particularly Foyth all over the shop, Norwich nearly added a second Onel Hernandez flashed a shot across the face of goal.
The Canaries thought they had made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute when Vrancic played in Teemu Pukki, who finished with aplomb.
But the home fans’ wild celebrations were eventually brought to a shuddering halt by VAR Chris Kavanagh, who had spotted the Finn’s armpit was a Planck length* offside and the effort was chalked off as the league hastily posted a bizarre reason online.
“It’s not football anymore,” chanted the angry Canaries supporters – and they were right.
How can you rule out a goal for offside the attacker appears to be level with the defender?
If you need the Hubble Space Telescope to determine whether a goal is offside then surely it is not.
We all thought money would lead to the downfall of the Premier League. We were wrong.
The way things are going it will be technology.
Vrancic celebrated his maiden Premier League strikeCredit: AFP or licensors
Eriksen put Spurs back in the game with a deflected free-kickCredit: Reuters
Mourinho did not need any replays to see how bad his defence were in the first half and during the break he dragged the two main culprits Foyth and Jan Vertonghen.
In their places on came Davinson Sanchez and Lucas Moura as the Spurs boss reverted to his favoured back four.
And the tactical switch almost paid off immediately as Eriksen’s sublime pass put Dele through on goal. But as the rejuvenated star prepared to unleash the trigger in the box he was denied by Christoph Zimmermann’s brilliant goal-saving sliding tackle.
With Norwich understandably feeling aggrieved and sorry for themselves you sensed Spurs were going to take full advantage of their VAR good fortune.
And so it came to pass after Jamal Lewis was booked for blocking Moura’s through ball to Kane with his hand.
Up stepped Eriksen and curled the resulting free kick into the top corner, via a slight deflection off the Norwich wall to make it 1-1 in the 55th minute.
It would have been so easy for the Canaries to have capitulated but within six minutes they were back in front in bizarre circumstances – and they could not complain about being hard done-by this time as they were served a major slice of good fortune.
The ball bounced off Aurier and into the net on 61 minutesCredit: Reuters
Buendia played in Pukki but before the striker could shoot Spurs defender Toby Alderweireld nicked the ball off his toes only to see it cannon off team-mate Serge Aurier and roll past the wrong-footed Gazzaniga into the net.
But that was not the end of the drama.
Kane made it 2-2 with an 83rd minute penalty after he had been brought crashing to the ground by Zimmerman’s reckless sliding challenge.
Spurs sub Erik Lamela then had a 25 yard shot tipped over by Tim Krul.
*The smallest possible size for anything in the universe is the Planck Length, which is 1.6 x10-35m across.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
