WE PLAYED THEM OFF THE SPARK
Delph: The dressing room was electric..it was an amazing day
FABIAN DELPH revealed how the England dressing room was electrified by the Nations League triumph that lit up Wembley.
The Manchester City midfielder was one of the star performers as Gareth Southgate’s men pulled off a win to cap a superb year for the new and improved Three
HARRY KANE spoke of his pride at sparking the most jubilant scenes at Wembley since Euro 96.
The last time the World Cup Golden Boot winner played at the national stadium he was grabbing the late goals against PSV that kept Spurs in this season’s Champions League.
This time the last-gasp sigh of relief came after his outstretched boot converted Ben Chilwell’s cross and saw Gareth Southgate’s England top a Nations League group including Spain and Croatia.
Flag-waving fans at the final whistle bought into the Wembley DJ’s decision to whack on the Football’s Coming Home anthem that so rankled with Croatia at the World Cup.
Kane, a month short of his third birthday when Terry Venables’ men sent such a surge of excitement emanating from the old stadium, said: “It’s incredible.
“I’ve never seen Wembley like this in an England shirt.
“We want to make everyone proud, I know they’ll enjoy this one.”
This was a triumph that answered so many questions, not least about England’s ability to live with the big teams, despite their dream run to the World Cup semifinals and that sensational win in Spain last month.
Here they showed the character and belief to persevere despite missing a glut of first-half chances before falling behind to a shock goal from Andrej Kramaric.
Substitute Jesse Lingard, who curled in that peach against the USA last Thursday, came off the bench to score again for his country. This tap-in was of far greater significance.
Kane slid in, five minutes from the end to make himself the last action hero yet again. And that was enough to get Kyle Walker and England’s Joe Gomez celebrating after the final whistle (left).
Kane added: “It felt good. The lads stuck at it, we showed our character, stayed calm and deserved to win. “We were disappointed not to take our chances but against big sides you have to stay calm. “We said after the World Cup we want to keep progressing and get better – and the way to do that is by beating top teams. We
finished the year strong. We’ll enjoy this one.”
Lingard said: “We kept the confidence, togetherness and spirit from the World Cup.
“It’s brilliant. Well done to the lads and staff who stuck together through the highs and lows.”
As well as preventing a relegation that would have sparked the routine negativity and pessimism, Kane’s goal guarantees England a place in the Euro 2020 play-offs.
That fallback is now there in the unlikely event they fail to qualify for the tournament through the traditional route.
Southgate said: “In terms of the quality of the group you could look at the group with France, Germany and Holland, but I think ours on form has been the toughest to come through.
“That’s a significant step for us. We were very close against Spain here as well.
“We had real options on the bench to change the game, and that’s a real shift over the last couple of months. So I’m very proud.
“The tone was set the other night. The players came in and showed a really high level, showing the competition and quality coming through.
“If it had been sloppy the other night, it would have rolled into today’s game. No one should underestimate the prospect of that.
“We saw the game through with some maturity as well.”