Harry Kane labelled the defending in Bayern Munich’s 5-4 Champions League semi-final first leg defeat at PSG as “amazing” – but Wayne Rooney disagreed.
The nine-goal thriller was the first time in a European semi-final match that both teams scored four or more goals.
Kane, who opened the scoring from the penalty spot, declared at full-time on Amazon Prime: “Even though there was nine goals scored, there was some amazing defending out there.
“You’ve got the best players in the world. The best attackers, the best defenders. Of course, sometimes the attackers are going to come out on top and show their quality.
“When you go back and look at the centre-halves playing in midfield, in attack sometimes, out wide against the wingers, credit to them. It’s a really hard job. I thought they were outstanding.”
But Rooney had a different view.
He told Amazon Prime: “I love Harry Kane. Everyone can see that on the words I say about him. But, there’s no way he can be praising his defenders.
“Maybe because they are his team-mates. He’s trying to give them a bit of confidence for next week. The defending from both teams was really bad. If he’s being honest.
“Both teams have so much quality at the top end of the pitch that they probably forgot to defend. That means we get to enjoy some great goals.”
Carra: Almost impossible to stop the goals
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher lauded the attacking play in the joint-highest scoring semi-final match in European Cup history.
He told CBS Sports: “Normally when I see a game like that I’ll say ‘the defending is not good enough’ or ‘it is not up to the standard of this level of football’.
“But what I would say is: Every attacking player on the pitch was an eight or nine out of 10. Every attacking player got the better of their counterpart.
Ousmane Dembele scored PSG’s fifth goal
“When I remember the goals, it wasn’t like there was a goalkeeper howler or something stupid defensively, it felt like the goals were just great goals.
“It wasn’t like defenders made a fool of themselves. The attacking play was that high it was almost impossible to stop the goals.”
Henry: Risks were rewarded
The goal-fest at the Parc des Princes means PSG (43) and Bayern Munich (42) have both scored more than 40 goals in the Champions League this season.
Reacting on CBS Sports, Thierry Henry added: “We’ve been talking a lot about teams who don’t take enough risks. We talk about teams not losing the game rather than winning it.
“Tonight we had plenty of risk. If we have our defensive hats on you might go crazy with what you saw tonight.
Dayot Upamecano converted from a set-piece
“But I don’t care.
“People have been complaining football is boring. That game was not boring. It was just crazy at times.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
