Harry hits, misses and England kane not win!

Coach Southgate backs distraught skipper who scored one and missed another penalty in 1-2 quarter-final defeat to world champions France

As soon as England captain Harry Kane buried his face in his hands and slumped to the Al Bayt turf in tears at the final whistle, some of his teammates were seen gesturing towards the cameras to focus away. They probably didn’t want an English generation to see their star captain distraught, having missed a penalty during their 1-2 defeat in the quarter-final to world champions France. 

Tchouameni’s stunner

After Aurelien Tchouameni’s (17th minute) stunning long-range effort had given France a first-half lead, England fought back in the second session, and were rightly awarded a penalty (52nd minute) after VAR’s intervention. Kane, a three-time Golden Boot winner at the English Premier League, stepped up and cleanly beat France’s goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris with a powerful shot into the left corner to equal compatriot Wayne Rooney’s record of 53 goals for England. The goal also  equalled Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup tally of eight goals. Kane had a fine match thereafter, as coach Gareth Southgate later admitted, “Harry was holding play and playing link-up really well.” However, it was France, who went ahead when Olivier Giroud (78th min) nodded home for 2-1. England kept pressing though, and got a second penalty in the 84th minute when once again a VAR intervention was sought. This time though, Kane, attempting to become England’s highest all-time scorer, missed. He ballooned it over the crossbar with a bit of an angle towards the left, the same side he had attempted his first penalty. 

Also Read: I'll have to live with penalty miss, but I'm proud of the team: Harry Kane

Rare record for Harry

Consequently, Kane, who reportedly has an 84 per cent success rate in penalties, became the first player to both score and miss a penalty in a World Cup match since Michal Bilek for Czechoslovakia against USA in 1990. So, could this be due to the psychological pressure of going up against your club custodian at Tottenham Hotspur for over a decade? 

“I think tonight it was different when you get a second penalty and that too against a goalkeeper that knows you really well. So there’s a lot involved in that situation. But Harry is the best and there’s nobody else I would have in that situation if this were to happen again tomorrow. Harry’s very low right now, but there’s nothing to reproach himself for. We’re in the position due to his goals and his leadership over a long period of time,” said Southgate, who preferred to look at his team’s positives instead. “We have pushed a top nation all the way with more possession [58 per cent against France’s 42 per cent] and more attempts on goal [16 against eight]. And some of our young players [Jude Bellingham 19, Bukayo Saka 21, Phil Foden 22] have shown themselves on the world stage. We showed character by coming from behind, withstood the pressure and lived up to expectation. We couldn’t have given more,” Southgate concluded.

Also Read: Midfielder Declan Rice wants Southgate to stay despite World Cup exit

On Sunday afternoon, Kane had a message for his 3.7 million Twitter followers: “Absolutely gutted. We’ve given it everything and it’s come down to a small detail which I take responsibility for. There’s no hiding from it, it hurts and it’ll take some time to get over but that’s part of sport.” 

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