WEMBLEY — The half-time chat was all about the end of Harry Kane , how slow he looked, how little he had impacted the game, how long would Lee Carsley give him before the hook? Other than a booking for body slamming an over-attentive defender, Kane was absorbed by the blanket defence of a limited opponent. And then he turned alchemist with a pass that flipped the narrative, a drilled daisy cutter to the feet of Jude Bellingham . For all his obvious gifts in front of goal Kane might also be England’s best passer , a claim Tottenham Hotspur supporters would readily accept.
Perhaps he imagined he was back in N17, picking out the run of Son Heung-min . Bellingham didn’t let him down, turning inside the clumsy tackle of Liam Scales, that earned the defender a second yellow card, to win the penalty that cracked the night wide open. Kane duly slotted home from the spot to shut down the dissenters and trigger the blitz against 10 men.
Kane had done his job, reminding the absentees in word and deed of the importance of this England, a revived national totem under Gareth Southgate that might yet reach its full potential in the hands of Thomas Tuchel . Those who weren’t here, those who weren’t in Greece, were clearly the losers no matter how legitimate their reasons for staying away. The players who presented took their opportunities to impress on the final lap of Carsley’s short run, not to mention Tuchel.
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