AL KHOR, Qatar – England captain Harry Kane accepted responsibility for his side’s defeat in the quarterfinal of the World Cup against France.
Kane, who had already levelled the score with a penalty in to cancel out Aurelien Tchouameni’s 17th minute opener for France and in the 83rd minute he had another opportunity to level from the spot after Mason Mount was bundled over by Theo Hernandez.
This time however, Kane, who is one of the most reliable penalty-takers in world football, converting 58 spotkicks throughout his career with only 11 misses, sent his effort high into the night sky and France held on for the win.
“I can’t fault my preparation or the details before the game. I felt confident taking it, just didn’t execute it the way I wanted to. It will be something I have to live with and take on the chin,” he told the BBC.
“It’s tough to take for me personally and the team,” he added, praising England’s performance which saw them have more possession and more shots on target than the French.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the boys. We had better spells, better chances but football comes down to small details – as the captain and the one who missed the penalty, I take responsibility for that,” said Kane, 29, who is optimistic for the future of a young squad.
“The team is in a really good place and there will be highs in the future. Standing here now, we are gutted it has come to an end as we had full belief we could go all the way.” “We can be proud of what we’ve done,” he concluded.
His first penalty saw him equal Wayne Rooney’s England goalscoring tally of 53 goals. The Tottenham forward scored his first senior international goal just seconds into his debut as a Wembley substitute against Lithuania in March 2015.
He led the team to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, bagging the Golden Boot with six goals in Russia. He scored four goals at last year’s European Championship to help England reach a first major final since 1966. They lost to Italy on penalties, though Kane did score from his attempt.
Kane has won the Premier League Golden Boot three times since then but has so far failed to win silverware for club or country, despite coming agonisingly close.
As well as the near-misses for England, Kane was on the losing side when Tottenham reached the Champions League final for the first time in their history in 2019, going down 2-0 to Liverpool in Madrid.
England manager Gareth Southgate sprang to Kane’s defence. “There’s nobody I would have rather had in that situation and if we had one tomorrow I’d feel exactly the same way,” he said.
“For me he’s been a fantastic leader of this group. He’s the best but the best are still 85 percent (success rate) so even the best are going to miss at times so that’s football.
“It’s cruel for him because he will feel disappointed in himself but he shouldn’t because it’s 100 minutes of football and there’s a lot of things that can happen in terms of winning a game.” XINHUA, AFP
