Harry Kane on Jude Bellingham’s antics: “I don’t know what he was saying. I saw him mumbling something. Once I’m in that moment, I’m in my zone, trying to block everyone out. I’m sure he was saying something to try to put me off.” | Watch Stuttgart vs Bayern on Sky on Saturday
Harry Kane says he blocked out everything after England team-mate Jude Bellingham appeared to try and put him off ahead of converting a penalty for Bayern Munich in their 2-2 draw with Real Madrid.
England striker Kane put Bayern 2-1 in front from the penalty spot, before a late Vinicius Junior spot-kick earned Real a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final in Munich.
On what his international team-mate Bellingham said to him before the penalty, Kane told Them: “I don’t know what he was saying. I saw him mumbling something.
“Once I’m in that moment, I’m in my zone, trying to block everyone out. I’m sure he was saying something to try to put me off.”
Later in the mixed zone, Kane added: “In the moment, I didn’t know what he said but I spoke to him after and he said: ‘I know you’re going to go left of the keeper’.
“But it was nice for me because I saw the keeper go a little bit early and I put it away. Actually, on the pitch, I didn’t know what he said. I knew he was there but I didn’t know what he said. But I went left anyway.”
Kane’s penalty extended his season tally to 43 goals from as many games in his first season at Munich.
The 30-year-old admitted the campaign has not quite gone their way, losing the Bundesliga title to Bayer Leverkusen, but the big games are the reason he made the switch from Tottenham last summer.
“It’s been a good season so far. It’s just about the next game. Everything we’re fighting for this year is in this competition. It’ll be tough. We have to go there with full belief.
“I’m here for many years. It’s not a one-off year. At the start of the season, the expectation was to win trophies. The Champions League is the biggest one. If we can somehow get our hands on that one it would be an amazing season.
“These are the big games. The atmosphere today was incredible. This is why I want to be playing in these big games, these big moments.”
Madrid hit the front against the run of play in the 24th minute when Toni Kroos’ magnificent through-ball found Vinicius Jr, who tucked home coolly to give the away side a half-time lead.
Munich scored twice in four second-half minutes, firstly through Leroy Sane before Jamal Musiala went down in the penalty area and Kane sent Andriy Lunin the wrong way to put them in front.
Much like in the quarter-final against Manchester City, Madrid were not beaten and they came from behind once again courtesy of Vinicius’ penalty to leave it all square heading into the second leg, and while Kane said the result was “a little disappointing”, he has full belief they can qualify next week.
Kane said: “It’s a little disappointing, once we got 2-1 ahead we had two or three good chances, especially from set-plays but this is a Champions League semi-final, we expected a tough game.
“Real Madrid are one of the best teams in Europe and they can punish you with one or two actions like they did today so of course we are disappointed we didn’t get the win but it’s all to play for next week.”
The England captain added: “We started first 10 or 15 minutes on the front foot, we had a couple of chances there but then their goal came against the run of play.
“They built up the momentum and then we struggled to play our game but second half we came out with a higher intensity and deserved to get the two goals. We couldn’t get the third but all to play for.
“We will dust ourselves down, tough but we look forward to next week.”
Meanwhile, Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti admitted his side can play better after they fought back to level the tie ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu next week.
“Interesting game,” he said. “We could play better. We didn’t play our best. We had problems in the first half with a low block, too deep. We started to put pressure and it was much better.
“We tried to change something in the second half. We started really well and conceded two goals when our moment was good. The game was difficult at 2-1 down.
“Vinicius is starting to understand how it’s important for him to move inside the pitch and not only close to the line. He learned really well how to move.
“[The second leg] will be exciting. Open. You never know what will happen.”
Real Madrid will host Bayern Munich at the Bernabeu for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday May 8. Kick-off 8pm.
Before then Bayern travel to Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Arena; kick-off 2.30pm. Real Madrid are at home to Cadiz in LaLiga on the same day; kick-off 3.15pm.
