Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez did their cases no harm in Portugal and Harry Winks strengthened his in absentiaSunday afternoon at the Estádio D Afonso Henriques stadium and Gareth Southgate found himself once again fielding questions over the level of perceived progress in the year since the World Cup finals. England’s Nations League campaign had delivered another semi-final defeat but a first third-place finish in 51 years, no goals mustered from open play but a second successive penalty shootout success. “But the biggest sign of progress was the mentality of everyone after the loss to the Netherlands,” the manager said. “Once we’d calmed all the emotion, the theories as to why we’d lost, the drive was there. We weren’t satisfied...
Club and country must ease the burden on the striker who was rushed back from injury for the Champions League final and then unnecessarily taken to PortugalWith one minute gone in England’s Nations League play-off game in Guimarães, Harry Kane did something brilliant. Jordan Pickford launched a hard, flat pass from his own six-yard box. Kane saw it coming, crept back along the line of the centre circle, then executed a kind of cushioned capoeira‑roundhouse layoff into the path of Jesse Lingard.Lingard waited a beat, scanning his options. Kane made the choice for him, surging on ahead, pointing where he wanted the ball, then dinking a brilliantly conceived back-spun chip over Switzerland’s Yann Sommer and on to the crossbar. Related:...
The Spurs manager has some tough decision to make over the nature of his team following their defeat by Liverpool in the Champions League finalHindsight is of course always twenty-twenty. Did Mauricio Pochettino make a defining error in selecting Harry Kane to play from the start in the Wanda Metropolitana, Tottenham’s once-in-a-generation shot at European ultimacy?In outline the tone and texture of that oddly deathly Champions League final might suggest this was the case. Kane had not played for seven weeks, had not scored for Tottenham since early March. A half-fit Kane tends to be a ponderous Kane, with a tendency to spend much of the game grappling with his marker, arms stretched behind him, like a man feeling for...
Champions League final’s star forwards have countless goals between them – but no major trophies. In Madrid one will shed the nearly-man tagHanging on to a rising balloon presents you with a difficult decision: let go before it’s too late, or hold on and keep getting higher. When Harry Kane injured his ankle in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City, Tottenham’s chances of ending their season in Madrid on Saturday night seemed to have narrowed to a fine point.Kane has of course been the razor edge and all-round attacking totem of Mauricio Pochettino’s team, with an entire system set up to funnel and shift around him. Yet fast forward two months and in his absence...
Harry Kane was quietly brilliant and a reminder of Chelsea’s inability to get goals out of Olivier Giroud or Álvaro MorataThere is, of course, no such thing as a sure thing. No guarantees, no certainties. Except, now and then, when there is. Related: Tottenham’s Harry Kane makes most of VAR to put Chelsea on back foot Related: Police arrest youth over alleged racist incident before Spurs v Chelsea Continue reading...