<p>LONDON — Tottenham’s ambitions of playing in a lucrative Super League may be over, but a place among European soccer’s elite next season is still within reach after a last-gasp 2-1 win over Southampton in the Premier League on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Son Heung-min converted a 90th-minute penalty to leave Tottenham just two points behind fourth-place Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification, a day after the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/super-league-collapse-explain-8930f465432504a28a8dfc1627ce2941">club abandoned its plans</a> to join the breakaway Super League.</p>
<p>It marked a successful start to Ryan Mason’s temporary spell as manager after he replaced Jose Mourinho, who was fired on Monday with Tottenham in seventh place in the league.</p>
<p>Mason, a former Tottenham midfielder who was forced to retire in 2018 after failing to fully recover from a fractured skull, became the youngest person to manage a team in a Premier League game, at the age of 29 years, 312 days.</p>
<p>Tottenham was forced to come from behind after conceding a 30th-minute opener to Danny Ings, who glanced a header in off the post at a corner. Ings went off injured in the second half.</p>
<p>Gareth Bale, making his first start in more than a month, equalized in the 60th with a curling shot and Son had a goal disallowed for an offside against teammate Lucas Moura before getting handed a chance to win the game from the penalty spot after Sergio Reguilon was fouled just inside the area.</p>
<p>Son made no mistake from the spot. </p>
<p>Mason was unable to call upon Harry Kane for the match, with the league’s top scorer watching from the stands inside a virtually empty Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after hurting his ankle against Everton last week.</p>
<p>Mason said before kickoff against Southampton that Kane could return to training by the end of the week, giving him a chance of playing in the English League Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday. It’s Tottenham’s only shot at a trophy this season, and another chance to get into European competition next season.</p>
<p>Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy hoped to have guaranteed the club a permanent place on European football’s top table by getting it included in the controversial Super League, a closed shop of elite teams that was announced late Sunday to widespread disgust and anger.</p>
<p>By Tuesday, Tottenham and five other English clubs had humiliatingly withdrawn from the scheme because of government and supporter pressure, leaving the proposals in ruins. A small band of supporters protested outside the stadium ahead of Wednesday’s match calling for the removal of Levy and the club’s owners, the ENIC Group.</p>
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