Harry Kane said he might well score three like Cristiano Ronaldo. People tittered. Instead it was just the two for the England captain as he struck the goals to gain England a precious victory in their opening Group G fixture against an obdurate, organised and occasionally cynical Tunisia. It mattered in terms of perception as well as points. These were Kane’s first tournament goals and he, and England, are up and running. What a contribution from the captain.
At times England wrestled with familiar failings. At times, Tunisia just wrestled and not least when it came to dealing with Kane who was dragged to the turf on at least two occasions inside the penalty area. The first probably was rightly not given, as John Stones already appeared to have committed a foul, but the second appeared a blatant penalty. Where was the video assistant referee (VAR)?
After being overwhelmed at set-pieces early on the Tunisians resorted to grapple tactics which seemed to have hauled England down into a usual sense of stifling frustration especially in an increasingly drifting second-half. The Tunisians swarmed around England like the midges and mosquitoes that plagued this stadium on the banks of the River Volga and so irritated the players.
That was until injury-time when Harry Maguire, who was also being regularly man-handled, finally found some space to meet a corner and flick the ball towards the back-post where Kane had drifted free and headed home. Except it was not as simple as that.
The forward could easily have sent the chance over the bar but he twisted his body, strained his neck and whipped it into the net in the tight space between goalkeeper and goal-frame. In fact both of Kane’s goals came from corners. Thankfully, unlike at Euro 2016, he was not tasked with taking them.
Southgate had urged England to attack the tournament, attack the World Cup. They did that also until adversity and errors struck. But they overcame them. They, hopefully, removed a mental block in doing so. How wonderful would that be? This result means that, for the first time in five tournaments, since 2006 in fact, England have won their opening game. Next up it is Panama and then Belgium and a last-16 place should now be in their grasp. The 2,000 England fans inside this stadium sang and sang at the final whistle. What a relief.
There are issues. Defensively England remain far from assured with Ashley Young – whose place will be under threat from Danny Rose – and Maguire making some wrong decisions and the 3-5-2 under question while debate will re-open over the effectiveness of Raheem Sterling who appeared shorn of confidence after a woeful early miss and lasted barely an hour before being replaced by the far more effective Marcus Rashford while there was rich food for thought in the positive contribution of Ruben Loftus-Cheek who appears to have that bit of subtilty to unpick a packed defence.
There were positives also with Kieran Trippier outstandingly creative down the right flank, Kane predatory and Jordan Henderson fully justifying his selection as the midfield anchor.
They missed chance after chance after chance and scored just once, striking the frame of the goal twice. They had to be more ruthless and it seemed they would be just that as Kane scored on 11 minutes as Stones met Young’s corner with a superb leap, an even more superb header and goalkeeper Mouez Hassen somehow clawed it out. Unfortunately for him it dropped to Kane who side-foot volleyed into the net from close-range.
Before that Hassen had kept Tunisia in it as he did well to divert Jesse Lingard’s deflected shot away for a corner. Even so Lingard had to score and had to score when he then miscued a volley into the side-netting. Sterling, also, had to score but scuffed wide the goal beckoning while after conceding Hassen could not carry on, having already hurt his shoulder, and departed in tears. The goalkeeper had also denied Maguire, clawing away his header.
England were inexperienced of course, with nine players making their World Cup debuts, and maybe it began to show as Tunisia defended ever deeper and were determined to hold on by any means they could. Time was running out but that was until Kane intervened. Ronaldo had scored those three goals for Portugal against Spain last week and Kane said he fancied vying for ‘The Golden Boot’ as the World Cup top-scorer. Good for him. Good for England.
