Harry Kane blasts ref for no-call on 'stonewall' penalty after 'child-like' Arsenal error: 'Rules are rules'

Harry Kane blasts ref for no-call on ‘stonewall’ penalty after ‘child-like’ Arsenal error: ‘Rules are rules’

In a quarterfinal first leg rife with contentious decisions, Harry Kane pronounced himself surprised to have been on the receiving end of a yellow card for his challenge on Gabriel, but the Bayern Munich striker seemed altogether more baffled that his great rivals Arsenal had not handed him a second penalty of the night for a “child like” error at the back.

An absorbing 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium ended with Arsenal feeling aggrieved that referee Glenn Nyberg had concluded that Bukayo Saka had initiated contact with Manuel Neuer when he tumbled in the Bayern penalty area in the 95th minute. The visitors, however, were altogether more aggrieved by an incident that had happened nearly half an hour earlier. Nyberg had already blown his whistle to signal the restart of play when David Raya rolled by the ball to Gabriel, who placed his hands on it before passing to his goalkeeper. The pair might not have known that play had begun, but by the letter of the law it appeared to be a penalty, one that passed by the Arsenal crowd but drew bafflement from Kane and Leroy Sane.

By then Kane had fired Bayern into a 2-1 lead, converting his penalty after William Saliba had tripped Sane in the box, the former Tottenham striker scoring his 15th goal in 20 meetings with the Gunners. Arsenal might have felt he should not have been on the pitch to protest for another spot kick. In the 55th minute Kane was booked for an elbow into Gabriel’s face with replays showing that he had clearly caught sight of the Arsenal center back before the foul.

“It was strange,” Kane said of the collision with Gabriel, “I’m not really sure, it was 50-50, he gave that one as a foul and I’m surprised it was a yellow card, but it is what it is. Decisions sometimes go your way.

“They had a decision at the end which sometimes go your way but we also had a clear penalty which would have been really strange when the keeper passed it to Gabriel and he picked the ball up in his box but it was a stonewall penalty and I don’t know why the ref didn’t give it. It would have been strange. But the ref blew the whistle, he passed it, he picked it up, it would have been child like but that’s not our problem.

“The rules are the rules and maybe they should have had one, we should have had one, and it’s 2-2 and level for next week.”

Kane was not the only one left baffled by the penalty that wasn’t. Thomas Tuchel said that Nyberg had told him that he had not blown his whistle because Arsenal had made a “kid’s mistake”, a comment that did little to quell the Bayern boss’ anger.

Meanwhile Eric Dier said: “I think we should have had a penalty. When Raya passed the ball to Gabriel, it’s strange.

“No-one’s talking about it. He passed it like a goal-kick. The ref blew the whistle and he passed it and Gabriel picked it up. It was a very strange situation.”

Speaking on the Champions Club, however, CBS Sports rule analyst Christina Unkel offered a defense for Gabriel. “If you are arguing for this to be a penalty, you hate football,” she said. “Here we have to use common sense and Law 18. At no point was any advantage taken away from Bayern in this situation and most importantly, it was just an honest mistake. There was no reason that defender would have picked it up and placed it aside from the fact he never heard the whistle in the first place.”

With both sides feeling they might have had a penalty to swing the first leg in their favor, the quarterfinal will resume on a knife edge in Munich on Wednesday. It is more than three years since Bayern lost a Champions League match at the Allianz Arena and the soon to be deposed Bundesliga champions departed London feeling that they had proven quite the point about their quality following a disastrous run of form domestically.

“It’s a competition that the club want to win,” said Kane. “Not winning the Bundesliga this year is a tough pill to swallow and it makes this competition even more important but we know there’s still a long way to go.

“We have to find that togetherness, we have to find that team ethic where we grind out games because we haven’t done it enough this year. In the Champions League, we’ve done well, had a good campaign but we will need more of that if we want to go all the way to Wembley.”

Returning to London offers “extra motivation” for Kane, who has enjoyed remarkable individual success since leaving Tottenham for Bayern Munich this summer. His penalty at the Emirates was the 39th goal in his 38 appearances for the German giants with 12 assists to boot, the 30 year old arguably in the prime of his career even if he would not want to apply such a label to himself.

In what has been an altogether too familiar refrain throughout his career, though, individual success has not translated to team silverware. Unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen have romped to the top of the Bundesliga table and could end Bayern’s 11 year reign as German champions this week while crashing out of the domestic cups did Tuchel no favors before the club announced in February the manager would be leaving at the end of the season. Don’t expect Kane to follow him though.

When asked if he had any desire to return to England, Kane said: “I’m really enjoying my experience in Germany and it was a step that I needed in my career for a fresh stimulus, a fresh challenge and new surroundings, new stadiums, new teams and I’m really happy that I made the move.

“Of course I know how big the Premier league is, I played there for so many years before and my future is at Bayern Munich. I have a four year contract, I’m really enjoying it, hopefully I will be able to make something special happen this season. But if not, I’ll be ready to go again in the summer and turn things around.”