Harry Kane says young midfielders Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr should be "proud" of their "outstanding" performances in last night’s Champions League defeat to AC Milan.
Tottenham will be aiming to overturn a 1-0 deficit in next month’s last-16 second leg after Brahim Diaz’s early goal earned the Italian champions a narrow victory at San Siro.
In the absence of Spurs’ three senior midfielders -- injured pair Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma, and the suspended Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg -- 22-year-old Skipp made his full Champions League debut and Sarr, 20, made his first appearance in the competition.
The pair more than held their own and head coach Antonio Conte afterwards admitted he felt more "relaxed" about the rest of the campaign, knowing he can trust them.
Kane told Standard Sport: "I thought they were both outstanding. It’s not easy to come into the team -- two young players who have not got as much experience as some of the others -- in that sort of atmosphere and game, and perform the way they did. They should be proud.
"We were fully behind them and I think it’s important that the more experienced players make them feel as comfortable as possible. The boss said before the game, ‘We completely trust you and enjoy playing at the San Siro against one of the most famous clubs in the world’. They did that."
Bentancur has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a ruptured ACL sustained against Leicester on Saturday, while Conte last night said he is not counting on Bissouma to play again this term after ankle surgery. Skipp or Sarr will therefore partner Hojbjerg at home to West Ham on Sunday, and for the foreseeable future.
Skipp came through the ranks at Spurs and was part of the matchday squad for their 2019 Champions League Final defeat to Liverpool. The England Under-21 international appeared set for a breakthrough season last term, only to miss the final four months of the campaign with a niggling pelvis injury, and has struggled for minutes this year.
"He’s just a really hard worker," Kane said. "Keeps his head down, works hard, quite shy but just gets on with his job. He was really unlucky. When Antonio first came in, he was playing a big part of our team. He was playing games, looking good, looking solid then he got quite a big injury in his pelvis area.
"That set him back three or four months, and he’s just been working hard to get his time again and been waiting patiently so really happy that he’s done well tonight. He’ll keep trying to improve and that starts again on Sunday."
Sarr, meanwhile, was making only his third Spurs start since arriving from French club Metz in the summer.
"He’s got fantastic quality," Kane said of the Senegal international. "He was everywhere last night, breaking up play, tracking back, making tackles, shots, crosses.
"He’s a player who has all the ability and he’ll only get better from experiences like last night, playing a really good team, a really good midfield. We’re happy with him. The boss trusts him, that’s why he’s playing and we’re going to need those type of performances for the rest of the season."
Despite the result in Milan, Kane believes Spurs showed the required character after the dismal 4-1 defeat by Leicester and says there is everything to play for at home on March 8.
"It’s not a night to get down about. We have to keep our heads high and look forward to the next one," he said. "In football you can win or lose games. The fight we showed last night is the team we want to be.
"When we think about the Leicester game, that’s unacceptable [in terms of] how we want to be as a team. We didn’t show enough fight, enough passion, enough desire. We did that yesterday. OK, you can lose the game but as long as we have that togetherness and fight amongst the squad, we should win more than we lose.
"A lot of players can hold their heads up high. We fought in every moment, we tried everything but it was just one of those games where we couldn’t score. But for sure we dust ourselves down and we know there’s still 90 minutes, maybe more, to play at home."
