Harry Kane believes England can be proud of their performance at the World Cup despite losing to Croatia in Wednesday night’s semi-final.
Speaking after Mario Mandzukic’s winner in the second-half of extra-time the England captain admitted his side were “gutted” but could at least return home with heads held high.
“It’s tough. We’re gutted,” Kane told ITV. “We worked so hard. It was a tough game, a 50/50 game. I’m sure there is stuff we’ll look back on and think we could have done better.
“We worked as hard as we could. It hurts, it hurts a lot and I’m sure it will hurt for a while. But we can hold our heads up high.
“It was a fantastic journey. We got further than anyone thought.”
‘More we could have done’
Captain Harry Kane speaks after @England's defeat at the hands of Croatia
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— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 11, 2018
England took the lead in the fifth minute through a Kieran Trippier free-kick and should have doubled that advantage but for Kane and Jesse Lingard missing good opportunities to score.
“We created some good chances at one-nil up,” Kane admitted. “We perhaps dropped a little bit deep at times. We didn’t get enough pressure on the ball. There are a lot of ifs and buts.
“In big games like this there are small margins. It went their way in the end.”
‘Go again’
England were run ragged in the second-half, ceding possession to a dominant Croatia midfield and Kane admitted his side may look back on the game with some regret.
“There’s a lot we could have done better but, look, they played well,” he added.
“It was great that we got to this stage but we wanted to go on and win it. We felt we were good enough but we’ve fallen just a bit short.
“The next step now is to go one further. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved but we want more. We’re sad we couldn’t give the fans a final but we have to dust ourselves down and then go again in a few years.”
More on England v Croatia:
Football isn’t coming home this time – but England have restored the World Cup faith
Player ratings: Young, Alli and Kane off the pace as Three Lions crash out
5 things we learned as Three Lions suffer World Cup heartbreak
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