French journalist Julien Laurens has admitted his surprise at Harry Kane stepping up to take the second penalty of the game for England in their 2-1 defeat to France in the World Cup quarter-final.
After dispatching his first penalty of the night, the Tottenham striker had the chance to score an equaliser from the spot yet again.
After Gareth Southgate’s men were dealt a sucker punch via Olivier Giroud’s bullet header, his side were back in the game after Theo Hernandez’s blatant shove on Mason Mount inside the box.
And with Kane being prolific from the spot, it seemed as if changing the scoreline to 2-2 was a mere formality.
However, that was not be as the 29-year-old blasted his penalty over the crossbar as England’s hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals were over and done with after his shock miss.
Laurens was shocked to see Kane take the second penalty
Julien Laurens has told talkSPORT that several French fans, including himself were surprised to see Harry Kane take his second penalty of the night against Tottenham teammate Hugo Lloris.
“The French could not believe that Kane was taking that second one [penalty]. They were convinced that someone else would take it. They said, ‘It’s impossible.’
He continued, “And remember the Eintracht Frankfurt game with Spurs in the Champions League? He blasted the second penalty in the 90th minute again over the board.
“So already maybe there is something about taking two pens against the same game for him against the same goalkeeper.”
“If that ‘keeper has been your friend…they are really good friends, they see other outside of football, it’s not just training together, they know each other so well.”
“The French, in the debate we had after on radio or on television could not believe that Kane took that second penalty instead of someone else.”
Ultimately, this is hindsight talking as Harry Kane is England’s best penalty taker and had done the business from 12 yards out already.
The fact that Kane’s miss is such a talking point is testament to how reliable he is from the spot.
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