Harry Kane shrugs off shove of Serhou Guirassy in the box: “It’s a contact sport.” | OneFootball

Harry Kane and Joshua Kimmich have waved off talk of a potential foul on Kane’s opening goal in Saturday evening’s Bundesliga win over Borussia Dortmund. Essentially everyone involved in the match admitted that the 2-1 result in favor of the German record champions was fair, but that didn’t stop BVB head coach Niko Kovac from grousing that FCB striker Harry Kane too often received the benefit-of-the-doubt when it came to contact on the pitch.

Does this go the other way as well? The particular scene Kane and Kimmich were asked to comment on occurred in the 22nd minute. Kane headed home a Joshua Kimmich corner to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Just prior to placing the ball in the back of the net, Kane gave his marker Serhou Guirassy a light shove in the back.

“Oh come on,” Kane said when asked about the shove by Sky Germany. “It’s a contact sport. If that’s a foul, than I really don’t know what to say.“

“Even Guirassy isn’t complaining,” Kimmich added in the mixed zone. “That’s not a foul. I think we can all agree on that.“

“That’s a completely normal movement by the attacker on a marking defender,” match official Bastian Dankert added in his post-match Sky interview. “It’s not a push, not a shove in the back of Serhou Guirassy. You can’t see two hands on his back.“

GGFN | Peter Weis