LONDON. — In the run-up to this game former England centre forward Alan Shearer suggested on TV that Harry Kane would be worth in the region of £80million in the current inflated climate. That is perhaps a debatable point but here at a relieved White Hart Lane the Tottenham centre forward despatched an important late penalty in a manner so emphatic as to be reminiscent of Shearer in his prime in a game which ended 2-2 with Leicester City yesterday.

Shearer was always one of those players who never looked as though he would miss a penalty.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was another. Hit it hard and hit it high was a mantra that rarely seemed to let either player down. Well here Kane – on as a substitute with his team facing what would have been a rather wretched defeat – stepped up with only three minutes of the game remaining to score in similar fashion. If he had missed, Tottenham would have been out of the cup so there was no absence of pressure.

Having fallen behind to an early Christian Eriksen goal, it had initially looked like being a long day for Claudio Ranieri and his players. For a while they just didn’t see enough of the ball.

But a header from a corner from Marcin Wasilewski gave them a foothold and a terrific goal in the 48th minute from half-time substitute Shinji Okazaki seemed to be sending them in to the next round until the referee intervened at the death.

There is always a danger on days when teams make so many changes that a game can immediately suffer. It was certainly tempting to wonder if that would be the case here when the team sheets revealed both sides to have made eight each. — MailOnline.

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