Report: Brentford 2-2 Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur marked their return to Premier League action with a hard-fought 2-2 draw at the Gtech Community Stadium against Brentford, having come from 2-0 down in the second half to claw back a point after a topsy-turvy encounter in West London.

Spurs got off to a slow start and found themselves behind with 15 minutes on the clock when Vitali Janelt knocked in a loose ball after Mathias Jensen’s close-range drive hit Fraser Forster, who was filling in for Hugo Lloris after his excursions for France in Qatar last week.

Forster prevented Spurs from going two down by thwarting Mathias Jorgensen with his leg, but shortly after the restart, Brentford doubled their lead through man-of-the-moment Ivan Toney, who turned in on the line from a corner that the hosts had been gifted by virtue of a shanked clearance from Eric Dier.

Having felt aggrieved at not winning a penalty prior to Brentford’s second, Harry Kane halved the deficit almost instantly after Toney’s effort by heading Clement Lenglet’s exquisite cross past David Raya.

Spurs were lucky not to fall further behind when Bryan Mbuemo blasted over from close range, but were level five minutes when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg lashed in from Dejan Kulusevski’s cutback, and what followed was a dramatic exchange of chances by two England forwards.

First, Kane again beat Raya to a Lenglet cross, only to see his glanced header come off the bar, then at the other end, Toney lifted the ball over Forster – and over the bar.

Heung-min Son’s effort in the last minute was then parried by Raya, leaving 2-2 the final score.