The National Times - Spurs must show fighting spirit against Alkmaar: Postecoglou

Postecoglou's side slumped to a 1-0 defeat in the last 16 first leg at AZ on Thursday and looked set for another loss when Marcus Tavernier gave Bournemouth a half-time lead on Sunday.

Cristian Romero's return after a three-month injury absence did little to improve Tottenham's fortunes as Evanilson doubled Bournemouth's advantage after 65 minutes.

With the atmosphere turning toxic in north London and the pressure mounting on Postecoglou, Tottenham showed some much-needed character to scramble out of trouble.

Pape Sarr's miscued cross crept in to give Tottenham a fortunate lifeline and Son Heung-min converted an 84th-minute penalty that the South Korean won himself.

Languishing in lower mid-table in the Premier League, Tottenham can now turn their attention to the visit of AZ on Thursday in the second leg.

"Chaotic game, for sure. We added to the chaos and it was a little bit self-inflicted, especially in the first half. Just with the ball, we were really careless with our passing," Postecoglou said.

"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.

"I don't think it was a case of being open because we were throwing men forward, we just kept giving the ball away. We certainly need to be better in the way that we execute that part of our game for Thursday.

"You can imagine the noise around if the players didn't respond. Thursday is obviously a massive game for us.

"At least from that perspective - and even for the players themselves - we've obviously got a challenge, but they overcame a fairly big challenge today and hopefully we show the same kind of mindset."

Adding to Postecoglou's woes, Romero's first appearance since December was followed by a pointed social-media post where he thanked the medical staff of Argentina and not Tottenham on his X account.

Micky van de Ven also returned for his first league fixture in three months and lifted a nervous crowd, which Postecoglou conceded could lead to more tension among his players in the AZ clash.

"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," he said.

"To make it an atmosphere where maybe we lose some of that nervousness and anxiety within our game.

"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."

C.Stevenson--TNT