Credit where credit’s due.
In a game where players really don’t want to be picking up any unnecessary injuries, quite how Harry Kane managed to keep his cool after being on the wrong end of Bruno Alves’ ridiculous high-foot challenge is beyond us.
Thankfully for Kane (and pretty much every English football fan going), Alves’ foot didn’t make a full connection with the Spurs’ striker’s head.
In a week where another Portuguese defender generated a headline or two for his reaction to something resembling physical contact from an opponent, Kane’s eagerness to get on with the game and not make a big deal of the attempted ‘tackle’ was great to see.
Within seconds, the Twitter masses were praising the 22-year-old.
That challenge was disgusting, fair play to Harry Kane for his reaction!! Straight back up and after the ball.
— Alicia Bailes (@aliciabailes) June 2, 2016
First time I've been proud of the #england team for a while. Proper reaction from Kane. https://t.co/pzUordMK5i
— Anthony Wright (@AnthonyWright1) June 2, 2016
Great reaction from Kane #howafootballershouldreact 💪
— Ady Hinchliffe (@adyhinchliffe) June 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/CamHall95/status/738458300962996225
Fair play to Kane for carrying on. That’s disgusting, especially in a friendly.
— Chels HQ (@Chels_HQ) June 2, 2016
Not surprisingly, one or two were directing their tweets at Pepe.
@officialpepe you see the reaction of Kane when he got booted in the face? #takenote #pussy
— HARRISON (@danh90) June 2, 2016
Good on you Harry. We doubt there’ll be too many players heading to France next week that would’ve been straight up on their feet.