A FA Cup replay was the last thing Spurs needed

A late equaliser from winger Sofiane Boufal watched Southampton draw their FA Cup Fourth-Round tie with Spurs on Saturday and force a replay.
The well-contested match saw the people to St Mary’s take the lead with a brutal counter and finish by Son Heung-Min, but Saints pressure told towards the end of the match and Boufal was left to slam home three minutes from time.

A pleasing build-up before kick-off saw both Ralph Hasenhuttl and Jose Mourinho field strong sides to confront in front of a huge crowd on the South Coast, uncommon with the FA Cup not being a principal priority for some Premier League clubs nowadays.

Both sides started the match as they meant to go on and a nice attacking flow developed in the first-half.

Saints were breaking forward with purpose also though, and Kevin Danso fills at right-back for the injured Cedric saw his possibly goal-bound effort blocked well.

Before the half-hour though, Spurs believed that had claimed the lead.

Saints could not clear away and the traffic worked an opening for Giovani Lo Celso to stroke a shot into the web, but VAR ruled out his strike after demonstrating Son had touched the ball from an offside position.

Spurs were discovering joy from firing direct moves over the Saints defence that occasionally became vulnerable, and Angus Gunn did well to deny Lucas Moura from close-range.

10 minutes before half-time, however, Saints had the best chance of the match so much and it was brilliantly worked.

James Ward-Prowse lined up a free-kick in a fantastic place but he lofted the ball right over the defensive wall rather than crossing, and this place the alert Danny Ings directly through on goal.

The ball was bouncing awkwardly, but the in-form striker chested round the onrushing Hugo Lloris and was very unlucky to see his volley cleared off the line.

Into the second-half, Saints started to really press for the opening goal as their players began to combine well.

A smart run from Michael Obafemi was discovered well with a pinpoint pass from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and the child’s low ball across the face of goal was redirected fractions wide of the far post by Danny Ings at the near post.

Giovani Lo Celso made a superb run to beat lots of Saints challenges in the center of the park, resulting in the play spreading out to Son on the left. The South Korean had the time to control before shooting professionally to the corner and observing in front of the packed away end.

With no points to play here, however, Ralph Hasenhuttl went for it in the last phases by sending Sofiane Boufal on for Kevin Danso.

It looked like it was not likely to be Ings’ or Saints’ day once the striker missed another golden chance when he headed wide from Nathan Redmond’s cross, so the striker rather turned provider for a draw was deservedly rescued three minutes from fulltime.

Ings was played to the region and cut a pass back towards the penalty area without looking — perfectly discovering Boufal to slam a shot into the web.

This result means that both sides will need to play another game in the recently spent winter period in two week’s period, but both have to be applauded for taking the FA Cup seriously.

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