I knew stuttered run-up might get keeper off line – Kane

Harry Kane says he knew his stuttered run-up might draw goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic off his goalline – enabling him to score a penalty at the second attempt in England’s 4-2 win over Croatia in their World Cup opener.

The Bayern Munich striker was able to give England the lead from the penalty spot – but only thanks to the video assistant referee (VAR).

After Luka Modric fouled Noni Madueke, Kane stepped up – and saw his first effort saved by Croatia keeper Livakovic.

The VAR stepped in to give Kane a second chance because Livakovic was off his line.

“When I watched the clips I saw he likes to move early, so I knew that there was a chance that if I did the stutter that he would come off the line,” Kane told BBC Sport.

“I was 80% sure that it was off the line, I wasn’t 100% sure, then obviously when it got retaken I changed the technique a little bit. This is all why I do the research, and in the end it worked out nicely for me.”

At the time a penalty is taken the keeper must have one foot on or above the line, and images showed that Livakovic had moved fractionally too soon.

But even if the keeper had stayed on his line, the penalty would still have been retaken.

After Livakovic made the save the loose ball dropped to Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol to clear for Croatia.

But he had also moved too quickly and was inside the area when Kane took his first attempt.

This is not an automatic retake, as the defender must impact an opposition attacker.

Madueke was behind Gvardiol, so by clearing the ball he prevented the Arsenal winger from getting a shot from the rebound.

Kane duly despatched at the second attempt.

Interestingly, Kane had a similar penalty saved for Bayern Munich in the Champions League against Atalanta earlier this season.

Afterwards the forward said he had seen that the goalkeeper liked to come off his line, adding: “I knew that if I stopped, there was a good chance he’d come too far forward. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Following Kane’s penalty against Croatia, former Three Lions defender Conor Coady told 5 Live: “He can take any sort of penalty. He is that good at penalties.

“That is really clever if that is something he is thinking of, if he is watching other keepers and how they move and what they do, that is a really clever thing to do.

“He must’ve practiced, he’s obviously looked at the keeper.”

Former Spurs and England goalkeeper Paul Robinson added: “It has worked for him. The goalkeeper has come off his line but the interesting thing is he stuck to that technique for the next one.

“I have seen him do it this season before and I think his confidence and where he’s at at the moment, you can’t question him.

“The actual strike of the penalty was too close to the goalkeeper. Even if the goalkeeper hadn’t tried to seek the advantage he would have still saved it.

“You look at the way he learned from the first penalty, was brave enough to go the same way and this one was much closer to the corner. He’ll have practised many penalties going into this tournament.”