Harry Kane adds another layer of credibility to project England with late winner

It’s coming home. Who can blame the cheeky Wembley curators ramping the volume for the fabled English anthem as the players celebrated their late victory over Croatia? Topping their Group A Nations League table is hardly recompense for World Cup semi-final defeat to the Balkan ballers but it does add another layer of credibility to the England shirt.

And they say revenge is best served cold. This was delivered via the hottest boot in English football. Until Harry Kane poked home the winner with time rapidly evaporating, another London mugging was playing out in broad daylight. Kane had barely threatened before his strike but the importance of his 20th England goal was enough to skim the man of the match award from the more deserving feet of Marcus Rashford.

The young Manchester United striker will do well to reflect that despite a dynamic performance, England trailed when he left the pitch after 70 minutes. While hardly fair to blame a kid who took the game to the oppo all afternoon, it does no harm to point out if he is to fulfil his potential he must learn that running faster the closer you get to goal is not always the requirement at this level. It is not pace that kills, but change of pace, and that can mean putting on the breaks now and again to settle the feet in front of goal.

Admiration for Southgate’s England

There is so much to admire in Gareth Southgate’s England, not least a sense of enterprise. What they so obviously lacked at the World Cup in Russia and here for much of the match was the cold eyed stare of a team that knows just how good it is. Though a trip to Portugal to contest the European Nations Cup final ought to speed that process.

England spent the whole of the first half finding ways to miss. Raheem Sterling hit a poor pass seeking Rashford, then chose to shoot when he might have passed to Rashford. On the plus side England confidently carved open the World Cup finalists and all in the opening ten minutes.

At the back the English defender looks increasingly assured, Joe Gomez stepped into the shoes of Harry Maguire with no diminution in flair. And in midfield the ball moved quickly and inventively, Fabian Delph’s pass to pick out the run of Sterling a fine example of English brio.

Chaos

Kane had two cracks at scoring from the resulting chaos only to meet brilliant resistance, first from Tin Jedvaj heading off the line then keeper Lovre Kalinic making his second full length block inside the opening 15 minutes.

With 30 minutes gone the scoreboard could not divide the teams. This was both poor reward for England’s efforts and indicative of the organised resilience of an opposing team that though mostly second best did not feel inferior. England burned a lot of creative energy in prising open the Croatian defensive system. The longer they went unrewarded the more Croatian belief grew.

As they demonstrated in Russia and in beating Spain last week this is a team with plenty of nous. They know what they are doing. Though they frequently appeared boxed in they were impressively coherent when playing themselves out of trouble. The word is streetwise.

Explosive

Southgate again showed his game management by addressing the problem areas. Ross Barkley was the first to make way shortly after Croatia bust the game wide open through failed Leicester striker Andrej Kramaric. Barkley commits defenders well enough but without the explosive acceleration or timing to properly escape them he appears to be running in treacle.

Delph also made way. With Barkley not firing the creative burden in the heart of midfield fell to Delph. He is an organised footballer but no artiste. Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard injected the necessary pace and just enough mystery to disrupt Croatian rhythms. Southgate’s final punt was Jordan Sancho for Rashford, who was frankly clean out of puff.

He was rewarded with two goals in the final 12 minutes, Lingard stabbing home to bring England level. Neither his nor Kane’s strike were things of beauty, which in its own way was pleasing since England spent an hour looking pretty for nil return. Turns out winning ugly feels better than looking good.