Kane shows City what they missed out on with star turn
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HARRY KANE reminded Manchester City just what they missed out on as he scored two goals to earn Tottenham a dramatic win at the Etihad Stadium.
The England captain was desperate to join the champions in the summer but City never came up with an offer that even got close to Spurs’ valuation, and how he made them pay as their 15-game unbeaten streak was ended.
After playing his part in Dejan Kulusevski’s opener, he put Spurs back in front following Ilkay Gundogan’s equaliser with a sublime finish before delivering late drama.
Riyad Mahrez’s stoppagetime penalty had looked like stealing City a point but Kane, who also had a goal ruled out by VAR, had other ideas, heading home an even later winner in the fifth minute of time added on.
Kane felt it was a hardearned victory which puts Spurs’ league campaign back on track saying: “To grind out the result we did was very special. Everyone was outstanding and credit to everyone for bouncing back after a tough week.
“We have high standards of ourselves and have got ourselves in a position where we can really fight for the top four. The performance we put out there today shows we are fighting to the end. Hopefully we can use this as momentum going forward.
“What we have to learn is how to be more consistent over a long season. If we want to be competing in the top four, it [performances] has to be on a consistent basis.
“We have got Burnley away in midweek. They are fighting for their lives, so we know it will be a tough one.”
It was a win and performance that was at odds with what has happened at the north London club following three successive defeats. While Antonio Conte had been fighting fires after appearing to question Spurs’ transfer policy in an Italian TV interview, City boss Pep Guardiola was complimentary about them in the build-up.
It is easy to see why as he has been stung by Spurs enough in recent seasons, as the north London team have had the knack of being able to exploit them with Son Heung-min running in behind. And they needed just four minutes to execute that plan again as they took the lead.
Kane dropped deep and set Son racing through with a delightful pass and the South Korean unselfishly played in Kulusevski who converted into an empty net. It was a classic Spurs goal against City, but the home response was typically strong and on an evening when Spurs needed their goalkeeper to be at his best, Hugo Lloris produced a costly error that allowed City to equalise just after the half-hour.
The Frenchman, who cost Spurs two goals in last week’s 2-0 defeat to Wolves, spilled Raheem Sterling’s cross and Gundogan was on hand to convert into an empty net.
Spurs survived to half time and were also able to snuff out City after the re-start with some strong defending and it was Kane who put Spurs in front again.
After Ryan Sessegnon picked up a loose ball, he fed Son and the South Korean took his time to pick out Kane, who was arriving late in the box to produce a sublime finish into the top corner.
Kane had the ball in the net again in the 73rd minute with another clinical finish, sparking mad scenes of celebration, but they were ruined by VAR as Kulusevski was offside in the build-up.
City were awarded a penalty in the 90th minute when Cristian Romero handled at close range, with referee Anthony Taylor changing his decision after seeing the replay on the pitchside monitor.
But Kane was not done and there was one more twist in stoppage time. Kulusevski got the ball out on the right, cut inside and delivered a perfect cross for Kane to power a header home.
City captain Gundogan felt the result was a “wake-up call”.
“We kind of thought we had rescued it. If you look at the whole game we deserved to win, but football is sometimes crazy and today we made easy mistakes. Sometimes you have these kind of games and you need to learn from it. It is a wake-up call for us but there is still a long way to go.”