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Published 09/03/2025 at 18:40 GMT
Ange Postecoglou reflected on a pulsating 2-2 draw with European qualification chasers Bournemouth on Sunday, as his Tottenham side recovered from 2-0 down to claim a Premier League point in north London. Goals from Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson put The Cherries on course for the win, but Spurs hit back through Pape Matar Sarr and Son Heung-min's penalty.
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Ange Postecoglou was left to bemoan some "really careless" passing in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, but praised the response from his players after going 2-0 down.
It was a fourth draw of the season for a Spurs side who have largely alternated between wins and defeats in a tumultuous campaign, and Postecoglou was keen to acknowledge the effort of his players in securing a point.
"Yeah, chaotic game for sure," he said in his post-match press conference. "We added to the chaos, and it was a little bit self-inflicted, especially in the first half.
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"Just with the ball, we were really careless with our passing and that allowed the game to be played on the terms Bournemouth would like with their transition football.
"So yeah chaotic, but at 2-0 down it would have been very easy, particularly with the atmosphere as it was, for the boys to just let the game get away from us.
"But credit to them, they found a way to get back into the game and we got something out of it."
The other positives to take after Bournemouth's visit were the return of Cristian Romero following three months out, while Dominic Solanke featured for the full 90 minutes, and Micky van de Ven received a rapturous reception after coming off the bench.
There was a nervy moment for Romero inside the opening 20 seconds, gifting the ball to Evanilson, whose effort was brilliantly saved by Guglielmo Vicario.
"Yeah, that's the key thing, they got minutes," Postecoglou added. "It was just great to get him [Romero] back out there. He's such an important player for us, but you could see he hasn't played for a while. I thought he grew into the game and got a lot better as it went on.
"Great for Dom to get 90 minutes today, he's such a workhorse for us and I'm sure he'll feel better for that. Brilliant to get Micky out there as well.
"I think before Thursday night that was key for us to get some minutes into these guys and thankfully they got through it unscathed."
Attention now turns to the UEFA Europa League last-16 second leg against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday - live on TNT Sports and discovery+ - as Spurs look to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit.
Postecoglou continued: "I can't sort of dictate to people how they sort of interact, but AZ’s crowd certainly helped them on Thursday night, and we need our crowd to get behind the boys on Thursday to make it an atmosphere where maybe we lose some of that nervousness and anxiety within our game.
"But the reality is, we as a team have to respond irrespective of the atmosphere and one may follow the other. If we start the game strong, it’ll get the place nice and loud, which will help us."
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