Southgate praises Kane’s ‘strength’
No.54! Striker breaks England goal record
Gareth Southgate hailed Harry Kane’s mental strength after he broke England’s all-time goal record with the crucial strike in Thursday’s 2-1 Euro 2024 qualifier win over Italy.
Captain Kane stroked home his 54th international goal from the penalty spot to move ahead of Wayne Rooney and help England to a Group C win in Naples over the European champions.
The 29-year-old had been level with Rooney after missing a penalty in England’s quarter-final defeat by France at the World Cup in December.
“To break the record in the manner he did given the recent history was an indication of his strength of character. I couldn’t be happier for him,” Southgate told reporters.
“To do it as quick as he has as well, he still has a lot of his career to go, is an incredible achievement.
“The players gave him a brilliant reception afterwards and I think that was a response to the record and what he’s had to recover from.”
Kane’s goal came towards the end of an impressive first-half performance which would have put the game to bed had Jack Grealish not missed a glaring chance from close range when set up by the Tottenham striker.
In the end England had to hold out as Italy pulled a goal back through debutant Mateo Retegui and Luke Shaw was sent off in the 80th minute following two quick-fire yellow cards. “Thanks to everyone who’s helped me get to this stage. It’s a great night. We haven’t won in Italy for so long so to score, and win this game, is just special,” said Kane.
Southgate added: “We showed two sides without a doubt. We had great control from the back in the first half...
frankly we should have had the game buried, it should have been 3-0 at half-time.
“We conceded a really poor goal, several errors in the lead up to it, and then the whole emotion of evening changes.
“In the end they can reference something that they’ve had to grind and dig in away from home, which is hugely important... but equally we’d prefer more of the first half than second.” England next face Ukraine on Sunday. “This will be a fantastic result only if we win on Sunday,” Southgate said.
Italy coach Roberto Mancini was left to rue a poor first-half effort which cost his team a chance at a result, but he was encouraged by what he saw during the Azzurri’s second-half performance.
“Second half we were great. We saw the real team there which pressed and didn’t let them breathe,” said Mancini whose team beat England on penalties at Wembley to win the Euro 2020 title.
“We conceded two goals which we could have avoided. The first goal was down to distraction... In the second half we didn’t concede a shot against a team which didn’t go down to 10 until the 80th minute.”
RESULTS Group C
Italy 1 (Retegui 56) England 2 (Rice 13, Kane 44-pen); North Macedonia 2 (Elmas 66, Churlinov 72) Malta 1 (Yankam 86)
Group H
Kazakhstan 1 (Samorodov 24) Slovenia 2 (Brekalo 47, Vipotnik 78); Denmark 3 (Hojlund 21, 82, 90+3) Finland 1 (Antman 53); San Marino 0 Northern Ireland 2 (D Charles 24, 55)
Group J
Bosnia 3 (Krunic 14, 40, Dedic 63) Iceland 0; Portugal 4 (Joao Cancelo 8, Bernardo Silva 47, Ronaldo 51-pen, 63) Liechtenstein 0; Slovakia 0 Luxembourg 0