This has been one of the strangest halves of bad football we’ve seen in a while.
It’s been all time wasting, diving and fouling from both teams. The most notable incident was an injury to Thiago Silva, and you can’t blame him the fans at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium for being unable to create anything more than a totally flat atmosphere.
There had been tension throughout in terms of little fouls going back and forth – including Kane pretty obviously taking out Kepa – but things suddenly boiled over right at the end of the first half.
Hakim Ziyech got barged in the back and responded with a push on Emerson Royal. His attempted shoulder shove slid up onto the Brazilian’s face, and initially Ziyech got a red.
But before he reached the edge of the pitch, the referee stopped him, went to look at the VAR monitor, and then cancelled the red.
It was the right decision – but what a strange way to come to it.