Al Khor, Qatar – England captain Harry Kane said he will have to live with the missed penalty as he accepted responsibility for his side’s 2-1 World Cup quarter-final defeat by France on Saturday.

He levelled the score with a 54th-minute penalty to cancel out Aurelien Tchouameni’s 17th-minute opener for France and in the 84th 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 spot-kicks 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 having 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 scoring tally of 53 goals. The Tottenham Hotspur forward scored his first senior international goal just seconds into his debut as a Wembley substitute against Lithuania in March 2015.

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 per cent (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.” 

However, Alan Shearer, who scored 30 goals in 63 appearances for England, told BBC Radio: “That’s the life of a centre-forward. You put yourself in those positions and it will haunt Harry for the rest of his life.

“But that is what you have to put up with as a forward – you win some and you lose some.

“You don’t score every one and some chances mean more than others and it will hurt like hell.

“The biggest one I ever missed was against Sunderland and it still haunts me to this day.

“He won’t sleep well for a long time, that’s his personality and I know how much it means to him and the rest of the team.

“He will think he has cost England. We look at it a different way – he has saved us on many occasions. It hurts. It really hurts.”

While some have questioned if Kane should have taken the second penalty, particularly with his Tottenham Hotspur teammate Hugo Lloris in goal, former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said on beIN Sport: “He is so important to England that the dynamics in the squad dictate that nobody at that point felt it was appropriate to offer to take the penalty instead.”

Meanwhile, Southgate, 52, said he would take his time before he makes a decision over his future as England manager. His contract runs until December 2024 to take in the European Championship that year.

Under his watch, England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of the delayed Euro 2020.

He said: “Whenever I’ve finished these tournaments, I’ve needed time to make correct decisions because emotionally, you go through so many different feelings.”

He said: “To go again is a lot of energy, and you’ve got to make sure that you’re ready for that. There are (Euro 2024) qualifiers in March and together there’s too much in my head to think much of any of that.

“I think we have given a really good account of ourselves to the rest of the world, but in the end only one team wins.”

He noted there was “a lot to be excited about” due to the youthful profile of the squad.

“They know how close they’ve come,” he added. “They know they’ve pushed a top nation all the way. We had more possession, more attempts on goal.”

Midfielder Declan Rice wants Southgate to stay, adding: “He’s been brilliant for us. There’s a lot of criticism that’s not deserved.”

While former England defender Rio Ferdinand said Southgate has “unfinished business”, he said the manager “let us down”.

He said on Twitter: “We had them against the wall, hands around their throats with their toes off the floor waiting to be finished... We eased them back down...

“The big issue is that our substitutions are where, I think, Gareth Southgate let us down.”

Fellow ex-England defender Jamie Carragher agreed, telling Sky Sports: “It just felt in that the period between the two goals, I think we could have been braver from the bench.

“I certainly think now with five substitutions, it’s a big part of a manager’s role to influence the game and change the game.”

Southgate sent in his first substitutes Raheem Sterling and Mount in the 79th minute, just after France led 2-1.

AFP, REUTERS