Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We’re not done yet
RODGERS: FOXES CAN STILL MAKE IT TO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
BRENDAN RODGERS believes Leicester “still have a shot” at Champions League football next term.
But Jamie Vardy (right) and Co may need to win their shoot-out against top-four rivals Manchester United on Sunday to make it happen.
The fourth-placed Foxes were picked off by clinical Spurs to leave them level on points with United – who play West Ham on Wednesday – in fifth spot.
Rodgers is relishing his chance to join Europe’s elite – even though his side have blown their nine-point cushion before lockdown.
He said: “We still have a
HARRY KANE hunts Foxes like posh toffs on horseback with hounds – and has 16 goals in 14 games against Leicester to show for it.
As the England captain took Tottenham within touching distance of north London supremacy over Arsenal for the fourth consecutive year,
Leicester’s tribute to Devon Loch gathered depressing momentum.
Just before lockdown, Brendan Rodgers had a nine-point cushion in the top four and the Foxes’ route to Champions League football looked impregnable.
But they have since turned meltdown into an art form.
If Leicester’s second-half collapse at Bournemouth eight days ago was a masterclass of negligence, their goose was cooked inside 40 minutes here.
Spurs boss Jose Mourinho did his former club Manchester United a huge favour by turning over their main rivals for a topfour finish.
And although Leicester peppered Hugo Lloris with 24 shots – the most by a visiting team at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – it looks like Europa League football at the King Power next season.
Dress it up any way you want, but that’s a bit like thinking you’re going to win a Ferrari, only to be handed the keys to a Vauxhall Corsa. Rodgers has had nightmares about pitting his wits against Mourinho ever since he missed out on the title by a whisker at Liverpool.
Steven Gerrard’s fateful slip, Demba Ba galloping clear to score and the Special One beating his chest theatrically after Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Anfield in 2014 are painful memories Rodgers would prefer to consign to amnesia.
And inside six minutes, Rodgers was suffering at the hands of his nemesis again.
Heung-min Son sprang the offside trap and although Kasper Schmeichel appeared to have the Korean’s shot covered, the Foxes keeper was stranded by a telling deflection off James Justin.
Kane had strayed offside, and could have compromised Schmeichel’s view, but VAR
official Stuart Attwell saw no reason to intervene.
In Tottenham’s glory, glory years, an early lead would have been the catalyst for them to unfurl expansive football in the finest traditions of Blanchflower, Mackay and Greaves.
Yet briefly, caution held sway and the Foxes were unlucky when Ben Davies smuggled Jamie
Vardy’s back-heeled finish off the line before Hugo Lloris made a stunning one-handed save to divert Ayoze Perez’s volley round the post.
But contain-and-destroy has its merits, and eight minutes before the break
Tottenham executed a counter-attack perfectly to extend their lead. From a cleared Youri Tielemans corner, Giovani Lo Celso led the charge, Lucas Moura rolled an inviting pass into the channel and Kane (below) swept his left-foot finish into the far corner.
Two minutes later, Spurs were disappearing over the horizon as the England captain was on target again.
Moura robbed Luke Thomas to lead another fast break and Kane teased Ryan Bennett before cutting inside and bending his shot beyond Schmeichel with panache.
Mourinho insists he has little interest in finishing above Arsenal, saying Tottenham need to be exploring more ambitious horizons. But it’s a start.
And although Kane is not going to win the Golden Boot this year because of his injury lay-off in the New Year, 33 goals for club and country – 17 of them in the Premier League – is still a decent season’s work by any yardstick.
That honour is likely to go to 23-goal Vardy, who was out of luck this time.
But Kane has now scored more goals against Leicester than any other club. Can he play you every week, Brendan?