Roman Burki Praises 'Beast' Harry Kane After Tottenham's UCL Win vs. Dortmund
March 6, 2019
Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki praised Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane following the meeting between the two sides in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
After Spurs won the first leg of the last-16 tie 3-0 at Wembley, they completed the job with a 1-0 win at the Westfalenstadion, with Kane on the scoresheet for the Premier League outfit.
Following the match, Burki lamented the fact his side failed to find an away goal in the first leg but was full of praise for the Tottenham No. 10, per Tom Storer of Goal:
"We knew it will be really difficult because of the loss in the first leg. Tottenham waited for their chance, and with Harry Kane up front you can do that.
"You know he will score, and it was like that. It was unlucky for us, but we played very well, especially in the first half. We need to take the positive things out of this game for the Bundesliga. I think if we would have scored one goal in London the situation would have been completely different. In the end that is football."
"They had one chance and scored, we had five or six chances and didn't score. Kane is a beast. A player every team would love to have."
Early in the game on Tuesday, Dortmund laid siege to the Tottenham goal, with Jan Vertonghen making some crucial challenges and Hugo Lloris on hand to make a number of key stops.
That set the platform for Kane to wrap up the tie in the second half, as he raced onto Moussa Sissoko's through ball and finished beyond Burki. With Dortmund then needing five goals to progress, the contest was effectively over at that point.
Here's the winning goal (U.S. and UK only, respectively):
Per Sky Sports Statto, the strike was enough to see the forward become Tottenham's all-time top goalscorer in European competition:
After the game, Kane praised the performance of Spurs and was pleased with his pinpoint finish:
The match not only saw the England captain show off his potency in front of goal, he led the line expertly for Tottenham.
Kane's movement, physicality and intelligence on the ball made him a tough man to contain for the Dortmund defence. Given he only returned from injury against Burnley on February 23—he's scored three goals in four games since—it was a remarkable display.
Ex-Tottenham striker Gary Lineker noted there's a sense of inevitability when Kane gets into dangerous positions:
While Spurs have dropped off the pace in the race for the Premier League title, they represent a danger in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
They are strong defensively, tactically adaptable and have an excellent manager in the form of Mauricio Pochettino. Perhaps most crucially of all, they appear to be in possession of arguably the finest centre-forward on the planet at the moment.