‘We wouldn’t be here but for the number of goals he’s scored for us’: Southgate defends Kane’s penalty miss

While Harry Kane missed the second penalty for England in the team’s 1-2 loss against defending champions France, the 29-year-old has found support from the football community including England coach Gareth Southgate. The England striker, who had early successfully converted two penalties in a match for England three times in his career, saw his second penalty kick flying high in the stands in the 84th minute of the World Cup quarter-final against France at the Al Bayt Stadium.
England midfielder Jordan Henderson spoke in support of Kane minutes after England’s seventh exit in quarter-final stages in World Cup hory. “We know how many penalties Harry has scored for us, how many goals he has contributed to even get us here. He will be stronger for this in the future. He is a world-class striker and our captain, he will bounce back.” Henderson told ITV.
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According to Sky Sports, Kane had a 84 percentage career success rate in penalties for his club Tottenham Hotspurs and England and the England captain scored his fourth goal from the penalty spot in World Cup excluding shootouts making him the lead scorer for England in terms of penalty conversion excluding shootouts for the team in World Cup.

“I feel for Harry Kane because he’s been superb tonight, in so many aspects of his game. It’s arguably been his best game of the tournament. Overthinking it, I think he’s seen Hugo Lloris go the right way and tried to hit it that bit harder,” former England midfielder Danny Murphy told BBC Sport.
England’s Harry Kane looks dejected after the match as England are eliminated from the World Cup. (Reuters)
Two months ago, Kane had scored from a penalty before missing a penalty for his club Tottenham Hotspurs against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League. Earlier in 2018, Kane had missed one penalty before he scored from the second penalty against Liverpool.
While the likes of Wayne Rooney, Chris Waddle, David Batty and Paul Ince have missed from the penalty spot in the World Cup for England, Kane’s missed penalty in the stadium was also watched former England captain David Beckham. Beckham had missed the penalty and saw the ball fly over in a similar fashion in the 2004 Euro quarter-final against France. Former England goal-keeper Rob Green too defended Kane.
“If I could give anyone the ball to take a penalty now, it would be Harry Kane. He was there and missed and it happened but you would not begrudge any of the England players.” Green told BBC Radio 5.
England’s Harry Kane looks dejected after the match as England are eliminated from the World Cup. (Reuters)
In the 1996 Euro semi-finals against Germany, Gareth Southgate too missed a penalty and the England coach showed his faith in Kane.
“Look for me, we win and lose as a team. We conceded two goals and missed a few chances. He’s been incredible for us, so reliable in those situations. We wouldn’t be here but for the number of goals he’s scored for us,”Southgate told ITV.

The only exception was ITV commentator Sam Matterface as he mocked Kane over missing the second penalty. Matterface, who was covering the game along with Lee Dixon, compared Kane to Chriss Waddle, who missed the spot kick in the shootouts against West Germany in the 1990 semi-final. “They needed Gary Lineker, they got Chris Waddle,”Matterface commented during the match.