In the first twenty minutes, Konaté won every header. Not most of them. Every single one. Kane, who was one of the best aerial strikers in world football, couldn't get near him.
The England captain would time his run, leap at the apex, and find that Konaté had already been there, had already met the ball, had already redirected it with a power that sent it thirty, forty yards clear.
Kane started dropping deeper, trying to find the ball in pockets where Konaté couldn't follow. It didn't work. Konaté followed. He tracked Kane's every movement with the obsessive, suffocating attention of a man who had spent sixty-three days watching football on a television and was now making up for every second.
[Konaté First 20 Minutes: Aerial duels: 5/5 (100%). Ground duels: 3/3 (100%). Clearances: 4. Interceptions: 2. Passes completed: 14/14. He is playing at a level that the System has not recorded from any defender this season. This is not a comeback. This is a coronation.]
