Kane injury spoils Spurs’ stroll into last four at ‘The Lane’
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR booked their place in the FA Cup semi-finals but an injury to Harry Kane marred the party as they marked their last tie at their White Hart Lane home with a 6-0 thrashing of third-tier London rivals Millwall yesterday.
England international Kane, the Premier League’s joint top scorer, had to hobble off after falling awkwardly and suffering an ankle injury in a sixth minute challenge during their sixth round tie.
“It looks like last time against Sunderland, it was the same ankle,” Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino told BBC Sport, referring to the injury he suffered against the north-east side in September.
“We need to assess some more and after Monday we will see.”
Kane’s plight brought sympathy from his teammate Dele Alli, who told the BBC: “It is always horrible to lose a player like Harry .... We wish him a speedy recovery.”
Yet Kane’s absence was not missed on the day as Son Heung-min hammered a brilliant hat-trick and Kane’s replacement Christian Eriksen also scored a beauty before Alli and substitute Vincent Janssen got in on the act.
Eriksen made the key breakthrough with a brilliant snap shot on the turn on the half-hour mark, before Son crashed home a thunderous left-foot strike 10 minutes later.
The Korean then struck a sweet firsttime, right-foot volley from Kieran Trippier’s through ball in the 54th minute before Alli netted his 16th of the season in all competitions, a tap-in after a well-crafted move, in the 72nd.
The icing on the cake for Spurs was a first goal from open play in the 79th minute for their under-achieving Dutch striker Janssen, who may yet be needed in their title challenge if Kane is out of action for long. Son’s third came in stoppage time, a volley that slipped through the clutches of hapless Millwall keeper Tom King.
Meanwhile, Liverpool kept their push for a top-four finish on course as Emre Can thundered home a second-half winner to complete a hard earned 2-1 Premier League comeback win over Burnley at a relieved Anfield yesterday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were again out of sorts but earned their first back-to-back league wins this year to keep up the pressure on the league’s leading trio.
While nowhere near their scintillating best, typifying their uneven form of 2017, they displayed character to strike back after going behind to an Ashley Barnes goal after seven minutes. With the league’s worst travellers Burnley dreaming of their first away win of the season, the out-of-sorts Reds were grateful to equalise just before halftime through their first shot on target from Georginio Wijnaldum.
Liverpool looked short of ideas before German international Can produced a blow from seemingly nowhere just after the hour mark, bending his low 25-metre strike into the bottom corner past a despairing Tom Heaton.
Elsewhere, Craig Shakespeare has been appointed as Leicester City’s manager for the rest of the season, the league champions announced yesterday.
Shakespeare, pictured, has been acting as Leicester’s caretaker boss since the sacking of Claudio Ranieri last month during which time they have won their two league matches and eased clear of the relegation zone.
On their official website, Leicester announced that Shakespeare would continue to be supported by first team coach and goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell and the club’s existing team of backroom staff for the rest of the campaign.
Vice Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha told the website: “Craig’s skills as a coach and the high regard in which he is held by everyone at the Club were well known to us. We always knew the team would be in good hands when we asked him to take charge a fortnight ago.
“He has initiated the type of positive response that we hoped change would bring, showing great leadership qualities and composure under considerable pressure to produce two very important results.
“We have asked him to continue to lead the team this season and we are very happy that he has accepted.” – Reuters