Tottenham Hotspur showed their battling qualities on Tuesday night as they came from 2-0 down to claim a 2-2 draw with Juventus in Turin, with goals from Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen cancelling out Gonzalo Higuain's early brace to keep Spurs' hopes of progressing to the Champions League quarter-finals alive.
Spurs went into the game looking to put themselves in the best possible position ahead of the second leg, but they found their hopes hanging by a thread after a nightmarish opening 10 minutes in Turin.
The Premier League side went behind inside two minutes as Gonzalo Higuain peeled away from his marker to volley Miralem Pjanic’s deft free-kick across Hugo Lloris and into the far corner from just inside the box.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, they shot themselves in the foot again with just nine minutes gone as Ben Davies felled Federico Bernardeschi in the box as he looked to gather a cross-field ball, handing the hosts a penalty.
Higuain duly stepped up to sweep his spot-kick past Lloris to put Juve in dreamland.
However, that goal saw Juve take their foot off the gas, allowing Spurs to regroup when they were at their most vulnerable and Mauricio Pochettino’s side did just that, dominating possession from then on and probing for openings.
Harry Kane was given his first sniff of the game when he met Christian Eriksen’s cross but veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was equal to his header.
Higuain spurned a fine chance on the counter after Medhi Benatia had somehow prevented Dele Alli from getting a shot on goal. Juve countered and were two v one, but Higuain could only shoot narrowly wide of the far post after cutting inside Ben Davies.
Spurs quickly issued a warning in response as Kane saw a low effort tipped away by Buffon but when presented with another chance the England international made no mistake.
Alli picked up a loose ball in midfield and sent Kane away, with the striker keeping his cool to round Buffon and roll the ball into the empty net to reduce the arrears.
-Turning point -
However, a moment of madness from Serge Aurier on the stroke of half-time threatened to undo all that good work as the Ivorian scythed down Douglas Costa in the box to hand Juve another penalty.
Thus, Higuain had the chance for a first-half hat-trick, but the Argentine’s composure deserted him this time as he crashed an effort against the bar to hand Spurs a reprieve.
With that, Spurs went in at the break just a goal behind and they continued to plug away during the second period.
The hosts weren’t without their chances though, with Bernardeschi seeing a low, curling effort tipped just wide by a sprawling Lloris, before Mario Mandzukic headed straight at the Frenchman from the ensuing corner.
The visitors weren’t deterred though and continued to press high, with Kane going close to his second of the game with a fierce effort from 20 yards.
With 18 minutes to go, Spurs did level. Alli was bundled over on the edge of the Juve box and Eriksen stepped up to curl the resulting set-piece past Buffon and into the bottom corner to restore parity.
That looked to have set up a grandstand finale, but other than a deflected effort from Bernardeschi there was little to report in the final stages of the game as it ended 2-2 to leave things finely poised ahead of the second leg.