Kane was fortunate to leave Wembley in one piece after being caught on the head by a insane and potentially risky, studs-up, tackle from Portugal’s Bruno Alves.
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England will depart for football’s European Championship in France on the back of a three-game winning streak but with Roy Hodgson having grown irritated at criticism of his use of Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy. Hodgson was irritated by questions about what he called “the Wayne Rooney show” and made it absolutely clear, yet again, that his captain would be a mandatory starter in France.
After registering just four shots on target throughout 90 minutes; although Portugal managed none, England finally broke the deadlock with four minutes remaining, when Smalling neatly nodded in substitute Raheem Sterling’s inviting cross on his 25th worldwide appearance.
“I know what Dier means, but I think a lot of English players are known not to go down as easy as [players from] other countries”, Kane said. “It’s great to win it and get off to a flying start, but if you can’t get that win make sure you are solid and don’t concede late on looking for the -winner”.
“We know we’ve got to be a bit cuter but if the refs are on their game, like they were here, we’ll be fine”. Darius Vassell is one player whose game oddly enhanced England in the early 2000s while Peter Crouch’s record of 22 goals in 42 England games is vastly superior to many more natural strikers.
“Whether it’s players telling each things or the manager, there’s never any arguments and everybody is trying to learn and improve”.
With the likes of Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane arguably the two most on-form strikers at Hodgson’s disposal at the moment, the former Liverpool boss insists there is still place in the side for the experienced Wayne Rooney.
But Hodgson claimed Vardy and Kane had to drift wide in order to protect England’s defence.
We wanted a few more chances and a few more shots at goal but it’s something we’re working on. “It is a 23-man squad, not three players. We are ready. We haven’t been at our best, but we have won the three games”. “I just think that it’s unbalancing the group and that’s going to be our downfall unless he’s prepared to change it”. “You haven’t got a lot of time to prepare like you do for your clubs”, he said. When you play with that system, you need your strikers to split.
“As a preparation game it would have been better to play against 11”.
The 20th anniversary of them doing so has been celebrated over the past week and revisited in a BBC documentary, and it has struck the forward how big victory this summer would therefore be.
“I am happy I’m still here. (We’ve had) three wins coming into the tournament but I still feel we have to (do) better”.
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The England supremo added: “It is often a struggle when you play against 10 men”.
