Peter Crouch has declared his sympathy for Tottenham wonderkid Bryan Gil during his analysis on BT Sport on Wednesday night, as the Spaniard came on and won his side a penalty in injury time against Eintracht Frankfurt.
At 3-1, Spurs looked comfortable and were cruising against 10-men Frankfurt. But, the German side got one back and things became incredibly nervy. Gil tried to change that, driving at the Bundesliga side’s defence, twisting and turning.
He won a penalty, after going past the last Frankfurt defender, in which he will have been one on one and in with a chance of opening his Spurs account. Instead, he was tripped, and Harry Kane had the chance to score his second.
But the England skipper blasted the ball over the top of the bar – something which Crouch labelled “very surprising”. Crouch says he feels sorry for Spanish talent Gil, as he was working hard to impress – but was fouled instead of scoring.
“It’s brilliant, it’s a great bit of skill. I felt sorry for him because you could see how much he wanted to impress, and go and score a goal. But he didn’t, he won a penalty and it is very surprising that Harry Kane misses,” Crouch said.
Crouch has sympathy for Tottenham wonderkid Gil after winning penalty
Indeed, it was a brilliantly mazy run from Gil to go past so many players and win a spot-kick. Much like Kane did in the first half, when winning his side’s first penalty. After VAR, the England skipper was given a spot-kick, and scored.
Gil is yet to score for Spurs. Indeed, he has failed to score a single senior goal since joining Spurs in the summer of 2021. He failed to find the net on loan at Valencia. He clearly has the talent, but needs to win Antonio Conte’s trust.
But the will and the desire to do so is there. Scoring would have certainly gone a long way to winning Conte’s faith. But the run and winning the penalty will have done so, too. Unfortunately for Spurs, Kane missed, a collector’s item.
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