GOOD TEAMS SCORE LATE ON
Boss Southgate hails the togetherness of his last-gasp heroes
ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate praised his players’ fighting spirit after last night’s euphoric, injury- time victory but warned his heroes: ‘we can’t relax.’
Southgate’s side were electrifying in the opening stages, racing into an early lead as Kane scored his first goal in a major international tournament.
And the captain’s last- gasp winner after Ferjani Sassi had equalised with a penalty sparked frantic scenes of celebration as England got their world Cup campaign off to a winning start.
However, England laboured during periods of the second half as Tunisia sat deep in the hope of holding out for a famous draw.
And Southgate insisted it was the team’s togetherness that ensured they finally battered down the Tunisian door.
He said: ‘ The way we kept playing, even though the clock was running down — we stayed patient, waited for chances and deserved the win.
‘ we had so many clear- cut chances, we had total control of the game in the second half.
‘Even if we had drawn I would have been proud of the performance. In the end you wear teams down and good teams score late goals.
‘It’s a night where it’s hard to highlight individuals, the squad has been brilliant. Team selection was difficult and our substitutes had a good impact.
‘we’ve got this result over the past few weeks and that’s because of everyone.
‘we’ve given ourselves a great platform to build on. There’s much to build on but there’s a lot of work to do still.’
Despite the result, Southgate ordered his team not to allow complacency to creep in ahead of Sunday’s clash against Panama.
‘we have to enjoy this, but make sure we don’t have comfort in the next few days,’ Southgate insisted.
‘we have to prepare as perfectly for Panama to get the result we need. It’s hard to win a match in the world Cup against anyone.’
on Kane’s double, Southgate added: ‘He’s a top, top striker. I’m delighted for him because if he didn’t score we’d be asking questions. It’s great we’ve got him in the team and he took his goals really really well.
‘If he doesn’t score in this game I’m answering questions about his ability to score in tournament t football.
‘Now the only thing he hasn’t done is score in August! I’m delighted for him. I know he will feel the pride in leading his country to a win and that is the most important thing.’
Captain Kane chose not to highlight his own match-winning display, saying: ‘It’s massive, I’m so proud of the lads. I thought we played well, especially in the first half.
‘Credit to the lads, we kept going. we’ve spoken a lot about togetherness. It’s nice to see it working on the pitch. we will be happy tonight.’
England’s victory would have been even sweeter had it not been for a string of frustrating decisions from referee wilmar Roldan.
The penalty awarded to Tunisia that allowed them to equalise looked soft after Fakhreddine Ben Yousseff appeared to run straight into Kyle walker’s arm, before Kane had two strong penalty claims rebuffed by the Colombian official.
Roldan refused to pass both spot-kick claims on to VAR.
And Kane added: ‘I’ve not seen their penalty back but it didn’t look like one and there could have been a couple of penalties for