Kane equals English record with Champions League goal

Ben Valentine

•
Kane equals English record with Champions League goal image

Harry Kane has staked a claim to one of the best Champions League campaigns an English player has ever managed.

The Tottenham striker is having another excellent season and currently leads the Premier League charts with 23 goals in 26 games played.

Kane has also added three goals in the FA Cup this season, but has arguably saved his best work for the Champions League, having scored six times in five games before Spurs’ last-16 tie against Juventus.

And, once more when Tottenham needed him, Kane responded with a goal. With Spurs trailing 2-0 in the first half of the match in Turin, Kane rounded Gianluigi Buffon after getting in behind Juventus' defence and passed the ball into the open goal to bring his side back into the tie with a valuable away goal.

That in itself was notable as Buffon had not conceded a goal in 694 minutes — and that was with Italy against Sweden in the UEFA World Cup qualification playoff.

However, the goal was a bit of a milestone for Kane as well. It was his seventh of the Champions League, which equals the best in a single season by an English player.

Kane’s goal gives him a share of the record with Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, who scored seven goals for the Reds in the 2008-09 Champions League — which is also the last time the club made the knockout rounds of the competition.

Gerrard’s mark came in eight games that season, while Kane has taken just six to equal the total.

And Kane could still surpass it as he still  has the second leg to grab sole possession of the English record.

For Buffon, his next run without being scored on proved to be rather short. A 72nd minute free kick from Christian Eriksen caught the Italian legend leaning the wrong way and pulled Spurs back level on the night. 

The match finished at 2-2, giving Tottenham an away-goal advantage ahead of the second leg in London on March 7.

Ben Valentine