Gary Neville has described Harry Kane’s performance against France as ‘incredible’ and insisted that the England captain did not deserve to miss the spot-kick.
Kane posed the French backline all sorts of problems when he dropped deep to pick up the ball in the quarter-final on Saturday and the striker saw a fantastic strike tipped over the bar by Hugo Lloris in the first half.
When he had a chance to draw the Three Lions level from the penalty spot after a foul on Bukayo Saka on 53 minutes, the Tottenham man no made mistake, smashing the ball into the top corner.
Kane was then asked to repeat the trick when England were handed another penalty in the 84th minute but the 29-year-old blasted the ball over the bar this time.
The Spurs star has taken to social media to accept responsibility for England’s elimination but Neville insisted that there is no one else he would have wanted to take the penalty, and spoke in glowing terms about the striker’s all-round performance.
The former Manchester United man said on the Gary Neville podcast: “I wouldn’t have anyone else taking the penalty in England other than Harry Kane. He’s our great goal-scorer.
“He could become the Premier League’s greatest-ever goal scorer. He’s a wonderful player. I thought he played really well in the game last night [Saturday] by the way. He didn’t deserve it. He played really well. His performance was top-notch.
“Every time they got the ball into him, their lack of composure and rashness around him was incredible. He kept laying it off, he kept popping it off. He didn’t deserve that. But it happens.”
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Upamecano and Varane struggled to cope with Kane’s intelligence and movement at times on Saturday, and it is unfortunate that he could not cap off that performance with another goal from the penalty spot.
The narrative from some of Kane’s detractors will turn to the striker not showing up again on a big occasion but the reality is that the 29-year-old was one of England’s best players on the day.