The England skipper was taunted by rival supporters over his penalty miss (Pictures: Getty)
Antonio Conte has played down the taunts England skipper Harry Kane received from Brentford supporters during Tottenham’s 2-2 draw on Boxing Day.
Spurs picked up right where they left off before the World Cup, delivering an underwhelming and lethargic first-half performance at the Community Stadium and falling behind – for the ninth consecutive game – to Vitaly Janelt’s tap-in after just 15 minutes.
Ivan Toney doubled the home side’s lead shortly after the restart from similarly close range but that finally sparked Tottenham into life, with Kane – who perhaps should have been awarded a penalty – pulling a goal back with a superb header.
Six minutes later, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg levelled the scores with an excellent finish after a pull-back from Dejan Kulusevski and Spurs went closest to finding a winner, with Kane hitting the bar late on.
During the match, Kane was mocked by the home fans over his penalty miss against France in the quarter-final of the World Cup, with supporters chanting ‘You let your country down’ at the striker.
But Conte took the teasing in good spirits afterwards and does not feel it will affect his top scorer, saying: ‘The fans were scared because today he was playing for Tottenham but not for what happened for England. It’s normal.
‘The fans tried to create a problem, but only I think because he was playing for Tottenham and against their team. It’s normal. In Italy you don’t what to know what happened!
Kane took his header brilliantly against Brentford (Picture: Getty)
‘When they play national team together they are the best. Then when they start together in the league, the fans find ways to disrupt the other players of the opponents, because in this moment they are a player for the opponent and can hurt your team.’
Asked if Kane should not take the chants personally, Conte added: ‘No, no. Also in England I think I always found a fantastic atmosphere, a great education and fans really polite.
‘This impressed me a lot because here there is a great education, they are really polite.’
On how Kane responded to his World Cup setback, Conte continued: ‘Personally, about Harry, I have zero doubt about his quality, about his mentality, about the way he approached every game and every training session.
‘For sure, for Harry, he’s facing a strange situation because he played a really good World Cup. I think that also because he played a good World Cup and the team played the quarter-final, then he missed this penalty. It was a decisive penalty for England to drop out.
‘But you know very well, football is this. You can have positive or negative moments. If you are strong mentally, if you are a top player, if you are a player of a big, big level, then there is a moment you have to put to one side a negative situation and move on. I think Harry did this.
‘I repeat we are talking about a really, really good player and especially a good person. For this reason, our fans and also the fans of the other teams should every time clap him.’
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The England skipper was taunted by rival supporters over his penalty miss.
