BULGARIA v ENGLAND
Kane: These are tough times Balakovhitsbackoverracism
MONDAY HARRY KANE admits he is going through a “tough period” even if he is in red-hot form.
Kane has scored 12 goals for club and country this term but it has been a difficult time for Spurs and England so he needs to show his leadership qualities.
Ahead of tonight’s qualifier against Bulgaria, the England skipper said: “It’s great to be scoring goals but even better to be winning games.
“Whenever we lose or I feel I haven’t played well, I look back and see what I could have done better. You need to lead by example. Not getting too down when you lose a game, not getting too high when you win.
“It is a long season for club and country ahead – so there are going to be tough periods.
“We are in one now as a club, hopefully we can win for England and I will go back to Spurs, take that in my stride and see how it progresses.”
“We have grafted really well, listened to the game plan. Everyone knows how crucial set-plays are in matches. We scored one, they scored one and then they got the winner at the end.
“I don’t think it is a concern. We all play well for our clubs and we get picked for England because we play well for our clubs. Everyone is here. Everyone is fighting for positions.
“But, yeah, we are disappointed at what happened. We have conceded two, not kept a clean sheet, but we knew it was going to be a tough game. Now we have to put it right.” BULGARIA boss Krasmir Balakov insists England need to put their own house in order when it comes to racism.
The Vasil Levski Stadium will have 5000 unoccupied seats tonight as punishment for racist behaviour among the crowd during matches against Kosovo and the Czech Republic in June.
And build-up to the Euro 2020 qualifier in Sofia has been dominated by discussion of how England players will react if attacking ability and depth we have in the squad. We had Marcus Rashford on the bench against the Czechs and he is an unbelievable strikerslash-winger.
“It is about keeping a clean sheet as a collective. Set-pieces cost us in games sometimes and they got back into the game with a set-piece.
they are subject to similar abuse tonight.
Bulgarian Football Union president Borislav Mihaylov called the talk “derogatory”.
And Bulgaria gaffer Balakov claimed: “I don’t think we have as a big a problem like, for example, England do.
“In the Bulgarian championship we have not had such problems while there have been incidents in all levels of English football involving racism.”