Harry Kane sends defiant England World Cup message after thrilling Germany comeback boosts squad

Nizaar Kinsella27 September 2022

Harry Kane has launched a defence of his England team-mates and believes last night’s thrilling comeback against Germany gives the squad a good platform going into the World Cup.

England showed character as they recovered from 2-0 down to score three goals in 11 minutes before conceding a late equaliser in their last game before heading to Qatar.

While a 3-3 draw condemned England to a sixth game without a win — their worst run since 1993 — a resilient display raised spirits following criticism of Gareth Southgate and his team.

Two mistakes from Harry Maguire leave Southgate with a major headache ahead of the World Cup opener against Iran on November 21, but Kane believes England can be positive about their chances in the Middle East this winter.

“I have always said to judge us on major tournaments,” said the England captain, whose penalty put his side 3-2 up, before Kai Havertz pounced on a fumble by goalkeeper Nick Pope to equalise.

Harry Kane insists England should be judged on their performances at major tournaments
The FA via Getty Images

“We’ve had two good [tournaments] in a row and are looking forward to another one. For sure, that last half-hour will give us confidence to do what we’ve done against one of the best teams in the world. We know we are going to need more of that in major tournament football.

“I think whenever you come to major tournaments there’s more pressure and concentration, which is what we are going to need if we want to go all the way.”

Southgate insisted last night that England had “grown” in adversity and would be better equipped to handle the pressure they will encounter in Qatar.

Tottenham striker Kane added: “There’s been a lot of talk about tactics, but it comes down to desire at the end of the day and who wants it more. Especially in that last half-hour, we wanted it more.

“We are going to need that same hunger and desire in Qatar. We are all fighting for the same goal and, hopefully, we can achieve it.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in