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Kane’s treble helped England to thrash Panama 6-1 and move to the top of Group G ahead of Belgium, clinching a place in the last-16 in the process.
“He’s very confident in his ability to convert chances. As important is the way he presses, holds the ball up, contributes to the overall game and sacrifices himself for the team.”
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| Harry Kane became only the third England player to score a hat-trick at the World Cup on Sunday |
Gareth Southgate insisted he would not swap Harry Kane for anybody after the striker became only the third England player to score a World Cup hat-trick and fired himself to the top of the scoring charts at this year’s tournament.
Kane’s treble helped England to thrash Panama 6-1 and move to the top of Group G ahead of Belgium, clinching a place in the last-16 in the process.
The England captain now has five goals in the World Cup, one more than Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku who both have four.
“He’s up at the top,” said England manager Southgate. “We wouldn’t
swap him for anyone in the tournament in terms of number nines. You know
that when he gets opportunities he’ll bury them.
“Clearly the stage to do that is this one. He’s started brilliantly.
The first penalty, you can dismiss penalties to be easy, but the length
of time he had to wait, and the number of distractions which made him
refocus and start again, that tells you about the mental toughness he
has got.
“He’s very confident in his ability to convert chances. As important is the way he presses, holds the ball up, contributes to the overall game and sacrifices himself for the team.”
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Only
Geoff Hurst, in the 1966 final, and Gary Lineker, against Poland in
1986, had previously scored hat-tricks for England at the World Cup.
Asked
whether his treble represented one of the best moments of his life, Kane
replied: “For sure, it’s one to be proud of. Not many players score a
hat-trick in the World Cup, so I’m extremely proud of that.”
Two of Kane’s goals came from the penalty spot and his third was
courtesy of a Ruben Loftus-Cheek shot that deflected off his boot.
“The first penalty, I have a routine,” said Kane. “I put the ball
down about three times. It’s about getting in the zone.
I practise them a
lot, so it’s about picking the corner and putting it in. The third was
one of the luckiest of my career. Sometimes it doesn’t fall for you, but
that one did. Hopefully it continues.”
25 - There were 25 uninterrupted passes played by England before their 6th goal today; the longest sequence for a World Cup goal since 1966 & one more pass than Esteban Cambiasso's goal for Argentina v Serbia in 2006 (24). Fortunate.#Eng #EngPan #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/pBnHr1EEKr— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 24, 2018