C Palace 1 – 1 Tottenham

Jeffrey Schlupp scored late to beat Crystal Palace a close 1-1 draw against Tottenham as the points were shared in the rain at Selhurst Park on Super sunday.

Harry Kane’s ninth goal of the season in the Premier League gave the visitors the lead midway through the first half (22), with Vicente Guaita outscored from 25 yards by the forward’s effort.

But the Spurs seemed content to sit on their slim lead, and Palace deservedly tied through Schlupp after Hugo Lloris spilled a free throw from Ebere Eze (81).

Guaita made a superb one-handed save to deny Eric Dier’s free kick in injury time as Palace edged out Newcastle and Wolves in 11th place, leaving the door open for Liverpool to overtake José Mourinho at the top when take on Fulham later on Sunday.

Palace deepens in pursuit of Spurs title

Fresh off his biggest road win in the top flight at West Brom last weekend, Roy Hodgson put his faith in the same starting eleven that was aided by the dismissal of Matheus Pereira in a 5-1 win at The Hawthorns. .

Palace entered the contest without a win in their previous 10 Premier League encounters with Spurs, with their 1-1 draw in this exact match last season ending a nine-game losing streak in the league against them. And it was Mourinho’s men who opened the first opportunity when Toby Alderweireld saw Heung-Min Son run, but the South Korean was unable to direct his shot on goal from close range.

Lloris first came into action moments later to deny Wilfried Zaha to his right, but the visitors should have broken the deadlock when Serge Aurier’s center was swept into goal by the return of Tanguy Ndombele only for Guaita to make a magnificent stop.

That triggered a period of sustained pressure on Palace’s goal that ultimately led to Kane’s first goal. The England forward had already seen a header from the Son corner stopped by overworked Guaita before the pair combined for the twelfth time this season to give the Spurs the lead.

There was little to be seen when Kane picked up the ball from 25 yards, but his right foot shot went through the gloves of the Palace plug.

However, Hodgson will have been encouraged by the way his team finished the half strong, with Eze taking a pass from Schlupp to nearly restore parity, but his shot slammed into Lloris’ left post.

Rain continued to fall in South London on the restart and Palace continued to advance as Eze picked up Benteke’s dismissal before putting Zaha to his left, but the forward’s effort did not come quickly enough.

The Spurs barely ventured forward in the second period with a speculative shot from afar from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg that failed to disturb Guaita. It was little respite for the Spurs defense, as Luka Milivojevic’s free throw over Benteke’s head gave Schlupp a chance to equalize with a golden edge, but the winger shot from inside the six-yard box.

Benteke was the next to approach when he got up to meet Eze’s corner, but his header rippled the roof of the net, but Palace was not denied his leveler when Schlupp expired his previous miss in the final 10 minutes, jumping over the fumble after Eze’s free kick was parried by Lloris.

In a frantic final 10 minutes, Mourinho turned to Dele Alli in search of winning the match for the second time. The midfielder returned to a Premier League team of the day for the first time since Spurs’ 6-1 win at Manchester United on 4 October.

Ben Davies was almost lucky with a cross pass that hit the crossbar before Guaita made a superb reflex save to deny Kane’s header when the hosts were caught.

Four minutes were added as Palace’s voices grew increasingly tense, and in the third of them, Dier nearly knocked down the returning Holmesdale Road faithful with his arched piece that drew a final save from Guaita when Palace won. His point.

What the managers said

Crystal Palace Chief Roy Hodgson: “It was a bit unfortunate the way we went back. Our goalkeeper [Vicente Guaita] I had an excellent game and did not expect [Harry Kane’s shot] enter, knowing how good our guardian is.

“We were threatening to get a draw, he was quite late, but he gave us a lot of pleasure and I thought we deserved it too.”

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho: “We have one more point than we had. In that way, one point is one point and we know how difficult it is to get into the Premier League. [also] lost two points.

“If I look at the last 10 minutes of the game, yes, if I look at the first 45 minutes, yes, but from 45 to 75 minutes we couldn’t play or build from behind and we made a lot of mistakes. Team like them, they can create and fight in the box If I divide the game into three parts, we lose two points. “

Man of the match – Vicente Guaita

Guaita certainly should have saved Kane’s long-range deflected attempt, but the Spaniard showed his resilience to preserve Palace’s point with a superb late save to deny Dier.

Before Tottenham’s first game, he had already made good saves to keep Ndombele, Sergio Reguilon and Kane out, underscoring his importance to Hodgson’s team.

The Palace coach said of his goalkeeper: “He made two great saves at the end, one from close range and of course a free kick from Eric Dier. He played a very good game. He would have felt so good after making the late saves. “.

Opt for statistics

• Despite giving up their lead in the second half, Spurs are unbeaten in their last nine away games in the Premier League (five wins and four draws); his longest run since April 2018 (also nine).
• Following 1-1 draws in their two meetings in 2020, Crystal Palace has avoided defeat in consecutive Premier League games against Spurs for the first time since the 2014-15 season (W1 D1).
• Spurs have only lost one of the 21 Premier League games in which they opened the scoring with José Mourinho (15 wins, 5 draws), and that only loss was against Wolves in March.
• The Crystal Palace draw was Spurs’ first goal in the Premier League since early November (against Brighton), ending a 475-minute run without conceding in the competition.

Whats Next?

Crystal Palace will travel to face West Ham on Wednesday; The start is at 8 pm. Tottenham will travel to Anfield to face Liverpool that same night in a crucial clash at the top of the Premier League; Start 20:00 h.