Adrien Rabiot insists Harry Kane’s costly penalty miss for England against France in the World Cup quarter-final was “justice”.
The Three Lions skipper could not get his team back on level terms again late on at Al Bayt Stadium on Saturday night, blasting a second penalty over the crossbar after Olivier Giroud had restored France’s lead with a near-post header.
Kane had earlier made it 1-1 from 12 yards with an emphatic effort to deceive Tottenham team-mate Hugo Lloris and tie Wayne Rooney as England’s all-time leading scorer after the excellent Bukayo Saka was brought down by France’s first goalscorer Aurelien Tchouameni.
The second penalty was awarded when substitute Mason Mount was clumsily barged over in the box by Theo Hernandez, with Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio eventually pointing to the spot after being instructed by VAR to consult the pitchside monitor.
The general consensus among fans and pundits seemed to be that both England penalties were justified, while a third could well have been given earlier on after a risky challenge from Dayot Upamecano on Kane.
However, France midfielder Rabiot questioned the late call and claimed that justice had been served with Kane’s shocking miss.
“First of all, I’m not sure that it’s really a foul. We’ve seen hundreds of actions like that that aren’t given,” he said.
“Of course, when he’s missed, we were happy, it was justice because there was no penalty.”
