Beaten Dutch ‘needed Kane’

not as good as it was,” Jol said on Radio 5 Live while watching his country fall five goals short of their target in a 2-0 victory, with both goals coming from Arjen Robben.

“We lack structure and quality players. We need a team with Harry Kane.”

He added as part of his commentary stint: “We’re playing a 4-3-2-1 tonight. We’re chopping and changing all the time which is not what we did in the past.”

But failure to reach another major tournament was not all bad news for Jol, who tried in vain to paint the sorry picture with a splash of optimism.

“We are a population of 16 million people and have one million registered footballers,” he said. “We’ll be back in a couple of years.”

France won Group A by beating Belarus 2-1 thanks to goals from Antoine Griezmann and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud, though they were helped by Sweden’s defeat.

The Swedes now go into the play-offs, as do Greece, who confirmed their place with a 4-0 victory over Gibraltar.

Gibraltar finished bottom of Group H with a goal difference of minus 44, having lost all 10 of their matches and scored just three goals.

Chelsea had reason to smile last night too, as Eden Hazard scored twice for Group H winners Belgium in their 4-0 victory over Cyprus. His brother Thorgan was also on target and Romelu Lukaku came on as a sub to add a fourth.