England captain speaks out after Three Lions’ crushing 2-1 defeat to reigning world champions in Atlanta
England captain Harry Kane spoke after the 2-1 defeat to Argentina.
England captain Harry Kane has revealed that manager Thomas Tuchel sent him a secret message from the touchline before the end of England’s 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina. The 32-year-old sounded pensive as he spoke after a heartbreaking late defeat when Anthony Gordon’s opener was canceled out by Enzo Fernandes.
Substitute Lautaro Martínez then came on in the second minute of stoppage time, and Argentina, who had been dominating in the final stages of the match, scored the winning goal. Kane, who was at the forefront of Tuchel’s team and displayed a quiet performance, explained what the manager told him after Gordon’s goal.
“The players are always ready for every moment of the game. When we took the lead, the message was to go ahead and get the extra points,” Kane told BBC Sport.
“And obviously, after they scored the two goals, we were trying to find something (an extra goal). But we just couldn’t get any momentum back into the game.”
In addition to reaching the Euro 2024 final before losing to Spain, England have also reached the semi-finals of three of the last four major competitions. When asked what the team could learn, Kane admitted that something is missing when it comes to the second half of the tournament.
“There were a lot of good moments in this tournament, a lot of good matches and also a semi-final,” he added. “We are talking about knocking on the door and we are getting closer but we just need to find the missing pieces in the final stages of the tournament.
“These tournaments take a lot of effort, pressure and mental drain. We’ve shown a lot of that in the six or seven weeks we’ve been together. We’re just missing that last piece.”
Harry Kane says manager Thomas Tuchel told England to score one more goal (Image: Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
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Tuchel switched to a 5-4-1 formation for the final 25 minutes of the game, bringing on Dan Byrne and Nico O’Reilly to protect their narrow lead. As Argentina advanced further, the Three Lions retreated to the edge of their own box.
As for what went wrong for England, Kane refused to criticize Tuchel’s tactics and suggested Argentina’s constant pressure contributed to England’s victory.
“We struggled to put pressure on the ball. Especially in the first half and the beginning of the second half, we pressed them well and loaded them high up the pitch. That allowed us to win the ball and control the game a little bit better,” he added.
Argentina’s Enzo Fernandes scores the equalizer
“After the goal, it was wave after wave, either they put more guys in front of us or we just couldn’t match them man-to-man. The guys were putting blocks in, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”
Following England’s defeat, Argentina will aim to become only the third country in history to win back-to-back World Cups, after Italy and Brazil. After Luis de la Fuente’s side defeated France 2-0 on Tuesday, Scaloni’s side will face Spain in Sunday’s final.
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