Strange game. Feyenoord are lucky not be down to 9. Girona have also missed a penalty, but now level after Danjuma did well. And Bryan Gil is playing really well.
Anyone want to feel old? Eidur Gudjohnsen's son is in the Gent squad for their game at Stamford Bridge later. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cx2kly9yky8o It's not even his oldest kid. A 3rd brother was on the bench for Malmo's loss to Rangers in the last round of European games.
I'm old enough to clearly remember Eidur's dad playing for Anderlect against us in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final
He's only 63. The eldest grandson's 26 and plays for Sarpsborg in Norway. No idea if he's got any kids yet!
After a couple of blank games against Leverkusen and Villa the German media are starting to snipe at Harry Kane, despite him racking up a more than a goal a game (and plenty of assists) from 40+ matches since his move to BM. For whatever reason, the football media world - outside of N17 at least - has always seemed to have it in for him. And we saw that again after his disappointing Euros with England. Maybe he just needs to come home.... BUT... would he?, could he? should he?
Kane is the reason why his teams can be contention for the serious trophies. Similarly he is not the reason why his teams fail in the end to do so. If the hacks, wherever they may be, do not understand this, that is their problem and not Kanes' .
Kane played in 4 quarter finals Newcastle 2015 Arsenal 2018 (came on as sub) City 2019 (subbed off injured after an hr) Stoke 2021 He scored 2 (don't know re assists) He played in 6 semi finals for us 2014-15 league Cup x 2 Games (sheff utd) 2017 FA Cup (chelsea) 2018-19 league cup (chelsea) 2018 FA Cup (united) 2020-21 league cup (brentford) In those 6 games he scored 1 goal and had no assists. He played in 3 Cup finals for us 2015 league Cup (chelsea) 2019 CL (liverpool) 2021 league cup (city) In those 3 he scored 0 and got zero assists. That's 3 goals and no assists I can find in 13 key games. In semi finals and finals (9 games) he scored 1 goal. For England he has played in: 2018 world Cup semi final and quarter final failed to score or assist in both. 2021 euros semi final and quarter finals and the final where he scored 2 goals v Ukraine in the quarters, 1 in the semi final v Denmark but didn't score or assist in the final. 2022 world cup where he scored in the quarter final loss to France but also missed a penalty. 2024 Euros where he played in the quarter, semi final and final where he scored 1 in the semi final v Holland. So that's 5 goals in 9 for England. In semi finals and finals its 2 goals in 6 games For Bayern he's played 2 CL quarter finals scoring 1 and 2 semi finals scoring 1. So in big games for Spurs, England and BM (quarters onwards) it's: Played 26 scored 10. For semi finals and finals it's: Played 17 scored 4 Kane is a brilliant goal scorer, a very good team player but the stats do suggest that he doesn't deliver in the biggest of games.
I agree that those stats tail off in big games, it's a gripe we had with him at Spurs despite how he carried the team at times domestically, but it's surely fair and necessary to a) compare those ratios against his peer elite goalscorers and b) the quality/level of the teams he was playing in - as logically, the 'better' games will almost inevitably be against the best teams.
Drogba ... 9 goals in 10 cup finals Ronaldo..... scored in 15 Cup finals ( for united, Madrid and Juve) Sheringham scored in 2 of the 4 cup finals he played in...he came on as a sub in 3! I ain't slaughtering Kane but do think that unless he delivers in a final this'll always be said about him.
15 in 21 games v Arsenal 9 in 17 games v liverpool 8 in 22 games v chelsea 6 in 21 games v united 5 in 16 games v city 1 in 4 games v Madrid 1 in 2 games v Barcelona 1 in 2 games v Bayern 1 in 2 games v juventus All that is is a great record of scoring against top teams. Makes his "big cup game" record a bit perplexing tbh
You left Messi off that list before Teddy!! Seriously though, I do agree with you, but would also factor in how many of those 'big games' was he allowed to play when little more than 50% fit. Poch in particular would just automatically put him in regardless of his condition or match fitness.
Girona went on to win via a 99th minute penalty. He also saved one in the last game. 4 penalty saves in 2 matches is amazing, but they really should stop giving away so many!
