The defender’s tackle left Harry Kane limping off and could miss the rest of the season.
A second-half strike from Son Heung-min gave Tottenham a 1-0 win over Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie. Sergio Aguero missed a first-half penalty and Harry Kane was forced off injured before Son’s strike settled the first European match at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday. City had won all of the past three meetings with Spurs but, without Bernardo Silva or Kevin De Bruyne in the starting line-up, they seemed to lack a lot of the spark that has kept them on course for an unprecedented quadruple this season. Mauricio Pochettino may have been happy with the victory but is also aware the victory came at a cost of a huge injury to Harry Kane. A tackle from Fabian Delph left Kane limping off and Pochettino was furious. After the match, Spurs boss reveals what he told Fabian Delph about the Harry Kane incident.
Mauricio Pochettino believes there was no malice from either party in the challenge between Fabian Delph and Harry Kane that saw the Tottenham Hotspur forward substituted with an ankle injury during Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final first leg defeat. Heung-Min Son made Sergio Aguero pay for missing a first-half penalty on the first European night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with the South Korean’s 78th-minute strike condemning Pep Guardiola’s side to a first defeat since January 29. Kane limped off on 58 minutes after coming off second best in a tackle with England teammate Delph and Pochettino feared the forward’s season could have been ended by his second ankle injury of the season. The Spurs boss was involved in a number of heated exchanges with Delph after Kane went off and spoke to the City left-back again at full time.
But Pochettino was keen to stress that he felt neither player was out to hurt the other. He told BT Sport, “Fabian was very disappointed with that situation.He was so aggressive with Harry after the action, I tried to make him understand that it wasn’t an intention to damage each other, it was just a tough action. He stepped on his ankle. I said to him that he was lucky, because checking on VAR maybe technically it was a red card. I’ve seen the action, both were very strong in the action but both didn’t have the intention to make damage to the other. That’s why I tried to talk to him, he was very upset with the aggressive action. They were both fighting for the ball without the intention to damage each other.”
Author’s Take:
It’s good to see Pochettino admitting the tackle wasn’t malicious or ill fated. It did look like Pochettino was angry and would have described the tackle as malicious since it was on Harry Kane.
