Wayne Rooney has criticised and questioned Harry Kane's assessment of Bayern Munich's performance after the England captain hailed their defenders in the 5-4 thriller against Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League tie.
Bayern lost by the odd goal in a chaotic nine-goal epic at the Parc des Princes, where the quality of both teams' forwards was widely praised. However, Kane, who opened the scoring with a first-half penalty, instead chose to focus on the defenders in a post-match interview with Amazon Prime.
'Even though there were nine goals scored, there was some amazing defending out there in the 1v1 battles,' Kane said. '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.'
Kane also praised the centre-halves for their versatility. '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.'
Rooney, working as a pundit, was not impressed with Kane's claims. 'Listen, I love Harry Kane,' Rooney said. 'But there's no way he can be praising his defenders.' Vincent Kompany's men had a backline of Jonathan Tah, goalscorer Dayot Upamecano, Alphonso Davies, and Josip Stanisic in front of Manuel Neuer.
'Maybe because they are his team-mates he is trying to give them a bit of confidence for next week,' Rooney added. 'I think the defending from both teams tonight was really bad, so I think he's being a bit modest there.'
More to follow.
