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Mourinho storms off as controversial handball rule gives Newcastle late reprieve in London

One of the Portuguese’s assistants received a red card after the full-time whistle as Newcastle claimed a fortuitous 1-1 draw.

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Newcastle 1

TOTTENHAM WERE DENIED by another controversial penalty given for handball deep into stoppage time as Callum Wilson’s spot-kick snatched a 1-1 draw for Newcastle on Sunday.

Spurs had just Lucas Moura’s goal to show for a dominant first-half display and were made to pay when Eric Dier was penalised after a VAR review as the ball brushed his arm in an aerial challenge with Andy Carroll.

Wilson converted the penalty with Newcastle’s first shot on target in two games, prompting Jose Mourinho to storm down the tunnel before the full-time whistle had been blown.

The drama did not end there as one of Mourinho’s assistants, Nuno Santos, was shown a red card for taking his dissent towards the match officials too far.

For all their complaints, Mourinho’s men will also have to reflect on not taking their chances before the break in front of the watching Gareth Bale.

The Welshman was all smiles in the stand, but was still not fit enough to make his second Spurs debut due to a knee injury, while Mourinho left Dele Alli out of his 18-man squad completely for the second straight league game.

However, with Heung-min Son and Harry Kane in form and on song, there seemed little chance of a repeat scoreline from last season when Newcastle emerged 1-0 victors from the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on the third weekend of the season.

Karl Darlow in the visitors’ goal was busy from the third minute as he clawed out Giovani lo Celso’s free-kick and got up to block Kane’s follow-up effort.

The England captain tested the Newcastle stopper again with a diving header moments later.

Kane provided four assists for Son in a 5-2 thrashing of Southampton last weekend and was the creator when Spurs did finally break the deadlock on 25 minutes.

Moura’s place is most at risk when Bale is fit to return, but reminded Mourinho of the threat he can post by bundling home his first Premier League goal since December from Kane’s low cross.

The Kane-Son connection nearly gave Moura another tap in as the South Korean’s attempted cross was cut out when he might have been better going for goal himself.

Son did go for goal when he twice hit the woodwork with shots from outside the box, while Darlow made another fantastic save from Kane’s long-range effort to somehow keep Newcastle’s deficit down to just one before half-time.

Spurs’ attacking flow was interrupted in the second-half without Son, who was replaced at half-time. But there was still precious little from Newcastle for them to fear at the other end until the dramatic finale.

Indeed, the closest the visitors came to scoring before the penalty was when Ben Davies smashed a clearance into his teammate Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and the ball ricocheted wide a minute from time.

But on a weekend already marked by complaints over the new interpretation of the handball law in the Premier League, Tottenham were stung despite Dier clearly having no intent to handle the ball.

Hugo Lloris got a hand to Callum Wilson’s penalty, but could not keep it out, prompting Mourinho to storm off in disgust.

© – AFP, 2020

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