Tottenham Hotspur suffered a significant setback in their bid for Champions League qualification after slipping to a 3-2 defeat at home to relegation strugglers AFC Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, with the away side netting a last-gasp winner through Dango Ouattara to stun Cristian Stellini’s men.
After a positive start from the north London outfit as Heung-min Son fired home for his second goal in his last two Premier League games, the Cherries hit back with a quickfire double either side of the break courtesy of Matias Vina and Dominic Solanke.
With the game ebbing into the closing stages, up stepped January arrival Arnaut Danjuma to bag an equaliser that looked to have sealed a point for the Lilywhites, only for a late sucker punch from Gary O’Neil’s men to further heighten the doom and gloom at N17.
On a day of frustration and disappointment for Spurs, the most notable villain for the home crowd was Colombia international Davinson Sanchez, with the centre-back having been hooked just before the hour mark despite only replacing the injured Clement Lenglet after 35 minutes.
That brutal withdrawal had come following some “terrible” defending from the former Ajax man in the build-up to Bournemouth’s first two goals of the day, as per 90min’s Sean Walsh, with the 26-year-old having perhaps been somewhat harshly booed by his own supporters amid that albeit erratic, brief cameo.
The 6 foot 2 dud was not alone in having underwhelmed against the survival hopefuls, however, with Sanchez and fellow defender Pedro Porro both “struggling” in the first half, in particular, as per The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare, with the defender subsequently forced into deleting his social media accounts after the game.
How did Porro perform against Bournemouth?
The Sporting CP loanee was particularly to blame in the lead-up to the aforementioned Vina’s strike late in the opening period, with the former Manchester City asset – whom Spurs could sign permanently on a £39m deal – having been robbed of the ball by the swarming visitors.
That set the tone for what was a grim outing overall for Porro against the south coast side, as the Spain international staggeringly lost possession on 23 occasions throughout the contest, having also completed just one of his five attempted dribbles as an indication of the wing-back’s shortcomings on the ball.
The 23-year-old did register three key passes as a sign that he can provide a creative spark at times, although while the defender was a ‘reliable creator’ in the second half – according to Walsh – ‘the damage had been done’ prior to the break, with Porro having ‘dribbled into trouble way too often’.
Any potential threat in an attacking sense was also overshadowed by the 5 foot 8 man’s defensive struggles as he won just five of his 14 total duels as well as committing two fouls, with his match rating of 6.6, as per Sofascore, among the lowest on the day.
As Walsh also stated, while Porro potentially deserves the “benefit of the doubt” after walking into a “bad situation” in recent months, Tottenham will likely have been hoping to see much more from the full-back, both today, but also in his brief time in England thus far.
