Harry Kane is able to break the all-time England goalscoring document in his crew’s opening Euro 2024 qualifier towards Italy, supervisor Gareth Southgate mentioned on Wednesday.
Tottenham striker Kane is locked with Wayne Rooney on 53 targets for his nationwide crew after lacking a penalty in England’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to France.
But Southgate says he has put that disappointment behind him coming into Thursday’s Group C conflict in Naples.
“We’ve seen with his performances and goalscoring with his club he’s put it behind him,” Southgate instructed reporters.
“I know he’s going to have added motivation tomorrow night to come back and show everybody what he’s about in an England shirt. For us that’s a good position.”
England has a poor document towards the world’s prime sides and Thursday will probably be an acid take a look at towards the crew that snatched Euro 2020 triumph it at Wembley earlier than dumping it right down to the second tier of the Nations League.
“We’ve been involved in some of the biggest matches in world football, they know the level that’s required, they know they have the ability to compete at that level,” Southgate added.
“Whatever we’ve done in the past is irrelevant tomorrow night, because we have to start again and have the humility to work hard to qualify again, and it’s a great fixture for us to get that underway. Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup but they still have some outstanding players and they will be highly motivated as well.”
West Ham midfielder Declan Rice mentioned that slender defeat to France in Qatar hasn’t discouraged England from aiming for the key event success which has evaded it for almost six many years.
“I think if we look at ourselves after that France game, we took a lot of positivity from the game even though we lost,” mentioned Rice.
“I think as a group of players there was a real belief in the room that we can compete with the best but it’s down to us now to go that one step ahead – beat a top nation, and win a trophy. That’s all that’s on our mind, starting tomorrow night, trying to beat Italy and starting our campaign off well.”
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com