Wayne Rooney has disagreed with Harry Kane’s claim that there was “amazing defending” during Bayern Munich’s defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Bayern and PSG demonstrated a high quality display of attacking football during the Champions League semi-final first leg at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.
Kane got the ball rolling with a penalty in the 17th minute and that turned out to be the first of a nine-goal thriller, with PSG claiming a 5-4 victory.
While this fixture, the highest-scoring semi-final game in the competition’s history, has been praised universally by pundits and neutrals alike, there has been questions over the defending from both teams.
Discussing the balance between attack and defence after the game, Kane told Amazon Prime: “Even though there is nine goals scored today, I think there was amazing defending throughout the game in the 1v1 battles.
“Look, you have got the best players in the world going at it, the best attackers, the best defenders. Of course, sometimes the attackers are going to come out on top and show their quality like both teams did today.
“When you go back and actually look at the centre-halves playing in midfield, playing in attack sometimes, playing out wide against the wingers, credit to them because it’s a really hard job and I thought they were outstanding today.”
However, Rooney feels Kane was protecting his Bayern team-mates with those comments.
“Listen, I love Harry Kane but there’s no way he can be praising his defenders,” the former Manchester United and England captain said.
“Maybe because they are his team-mates he is trying to give them a bit of confidence for next week.
“I think the defending from both teams tonight was really bad, so I think he’s being a bit modest there.
© The Standard Ltd