Jose Mourinho: Tottenham coach defends Harry Kane over Brighton penalty

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho launched a fierce defense of Harry Kane after hinting that the striker was “smart” in winning a decisive penalty against Brighton.

Kane got a penalty in the first half of Tottenham won 2-1 on SundayAfter colliding with Brighton midfielder Adam Lallana.

Referee Graham Scott awarded Tottenham a free kick at first, but video assistant referee Jonathan Moss revised the incident and changed the decision to a penalty kick, after replays showed that the collision occurred within the Brighton area.

Kane scored the penalty kick and defended his actions after the match, Describing it as a “50-50 resolution”Mourinho responded to suggestions that the striker was “smart” and “wise” in winning the penalty kick.

Mourinho said, “You are confused because you might talk about some Manchester United players, you might talk about some Manchester City players, you might talk about some Liverpool players, you might talk about some Chelsea players.”

“And you’re talking about Harry Kane? Who was in a position to control the ball in a dangerous situation, and Lallana comes in with a very reckless action and makes a mistake.

“Why are you talking about being clever or unintelligent? Being smart is holding the ball, shooting and shooting. It was a mistake.”

Mourinho added: “Why are you talking about us? They talked about Liverpool, talked about Manchester City, talked about Manchester United.”

“Talk about these punishments where you see the smart guy … When someone comes and hits, they fall to the ground.

“Don’t talk about Harry Kane.”

Tottenham are traveling to play Ludogorets in the Europa League on Thursday, having already defeated another Bulgarian side, Lokomotiv Plovdiv, in the competition’s second round of qualifiers.

Tottenham is currently ranked second in Group X, three points behind Antwerp after losing 1-0 to the Belgian team last Thursday, and Mourinho warned his players against facing another difficult test in Razgrad.

“I expect a difficult match. We already played against the second best team in Bulgaria … Looking at the table, I think Lokomotiv should be the second best team, and it was very difficult for us,” Mourinho said.

“So we can imagine Ludogorets has more potential, nine consecutive league titles not for everyone. It’s for them, Bayern Munich and maybe Paris Saint-Germain, so we respect them.”

“The fact that we only have three points, this double match against Ludogorets, is very important for us to have four or six points. We need points and we go to Bulgaria with that in mind.”

Mourinho also confirmed that Sergio Reguilon, Erik Lamela and Serge Aurier are not part of the team that traveled to Bulgaria.

“Reguilon is sick, but it is not a covid at all, just a flu,” he said.

“We don’t want him to be with the team, he can, but we don’t want him because in this position we have two great players and professionals. Ben Davis is Ben Davis, so no problem with that.

“Lamela has had a small problem for a few weeks and after the last match we decided it was time to stop and have him this week plus two weeks of international players to recover fully.

“Aurier is a little problem, nothing important, but he decided with the medical team that he did not want to take the risk (play tomorrow).”