Harry Kane has described England’s World Cup semi-final defeat against Argentina as his most painful tournament exit because of how the team lost sight of who they were. The captain is determined to move on as quickly as possible and is chasing a statement performance against Spain at Wembley on Saturday night in the Nations League. But he admits he is yet to get over the Argentina game and knows it is something he and his England teammates must work to process.
When you maybe go against your beliefs and you lose, it feels 10 times worse than just losing in a way where … if we lose doing it our way you accept it, take it on the chin and move on. It’s tough and it will still be tough. Each one hurts in a different way and this one hurt, for sure, more than any other one.
I’d say even more than when I missed the penalty in Qatar [in the 2-1 defeat by France in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals] because of just the manner that it happened.” It was put to Kane that it was a healing process. In football, you don’t have time. Before you know it’s the next one.
It’s a hard balance because you’re trying to get over it and learn from it but also we play the world champions on Saturday and it’s a big, important game.” Kane knows England must identify why they have repeatedly fallen short against the toughest teams when it matters most. How can we be ourselves more in those moments? Through qualifying campaigns and a lot of games in tournaments, we play with a certain intensity, we play in a good way.
It’s something that we haven’t quite been able to do in latter stages of tournaments against the bigger and better nations. It may be personalities, mentality. It may be just the direction and how we want to play in those games.
It’s conversations that we need to have as a group.” Kane accepts it was not only against Argentina that England were not at their best. But the message – as articulated by Thomas Tuchel when he addressed the squad at St George’s Park on Tuesday – was of the need to fine-tune. It’s a continuation because we have done a lot of good things.” Tuchel has been rocked by the withdrawals of Declan Rice, Cole Palmer, Kobbie Mainoo, Marcus Rashford and Tino Livramento for the upcoming Nations League fixtures; after Spain, England play Czechia and Croatia away before returning to Wembley to face Czechia.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
