In what promises to be one of the most awaited games of the first round of games in the UEFA Champions League, Tottenham will lock horns with Luciano Spalletti’s Inter Milan at the San Siro on Tuesday. It won’t just be a test of two very good teams, it will be a test for two top strikers- Mauro Icardi and Harry Kane.

It would seem unfair to compare two striker who play in different leagues, but remember than both Kane and Icardi are 25 and are worshipped by their club fans because of their performances in recent times. It also because of how their quality and prominence has made both of them one of the best strikers in the world.

It is evident that while Kane has been one a recent disappointing spell in front of goal for Spurs, Icardi has not scored even once this season in the Serie A. Both of them have had slightly barren periods of late and it would be intriguing to see who outscores the other.

On their best though, very few strikers come close to being as good as Kane. Although the Englishman relies on service from the likes of Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and Son Heung Min, every striker has his way of playing that allows him to score goals. Although Icardi is quite the same and relies on service from players around him, he isn’t the complete package that Kane can be a lot of times.

Just like how clean sheets and saves define the quality of goalkeepers, goals define how good strikers are. And Harry Kane has a better goalscoring record than a vast majority of the top strikers in Europe. Last season, the English skipper notched up a tally of 37 goals in all competitions for Spurs, excluding the six goals he scored in the World Cup for England.

In the 2016-17 campaign, Kane scored 31 times in all competitions, while Icardi scored 26 times that season. In the campaign before that, Kane scored 27 times in all competitions, whereas Icardi could find the back of the net 16 times for the nerazzurri.

It isn’t just because of the goals that makes Kane better, but it’s how his presence has made Spurs a better team. With him in the side, there seems to be an extra buzz among the players and their performance rise by five percent, helping Tottenham win games and play regularly in the Champions League. No doubting that Icardi is a top striker, but his presence on the pitch is yet to get the stamp of consistency.

He was very consistent last season for Inter and finished top of the goalscoring charts tied with Ciro Immobile and he has to prove that he is just as consistent this season and next season too. Because Kane has proved that he is one of the best in the world at a time when many doubted if he’s a one-season wonder or not. And he came out with flying colors.

Consistency makes players world-class and the day Icardi does that, he could well be better than Kane.