‘As good as we’ve ever had’: Kane hails England after flawless World Cup qualifying campaign

TIRANA - Harry Kane believes that England’s current side are “as good as we’ve ever had” after the skipper wrapped up their

record-breaking World Cup qualifying campaign

with a 2-0 win against Albania on Nov 16.

Bayern Munich striker Kane struck twice in the closing stages in Tirana to give Thomas Tuchel’s team a perfect eight successive Group K victories.

The 32-year-old has played in England sides that twice finished as European Championship runners-up, as well as reaching the World Cup semi-finals.

But Kane believes that Tuchel has assembled the best group during his 10 years in the national team, labelling them as one of the favourites to win the World Cup in 2026.

“I think it’s as good as we’ve ever had,” Kane told ITV. “I think when you look at the starting 11, you look at the players coming off the bench, we’re going to go into the tournament as one of the favourites.

“We have to accept that. We’ve been like that now for the last few tournaments, and that’s part and parcel of it.”

England are the first European team to go through a World Cup qualifying campaign of at least six games and winning every match without conceding a goal.

They netted 22 times on the road to the US, Canada and Mexico as Tuchel found a winning formula after a sluggish start to his reign.

Kane, who has a record 78 goals for his country, knows far sterner tests lie in wait in the tournament proper.

But he expects England to make a serious challenge for their first trophy since the 1966 World Cup.

“We’ve been building, we’ve had a great year together with the new coach, and now we look forward to obviously a big 2026,” Kane said.

“I think we’ve set the standard now, especially in the last few camps, and we carried it on into this camp.

“It was an important win. You don’t want to finish with a loss at the end of the year and then have to wait until March to play again. We can go away and enjoy this now.” AFP