Captain Harry Kane admitted England need to raise their game soon and fast to be in the race to challenge in next year World Cup after they crashed to a 3-1 home friendly loss to Senegal on Tuesday. Thomas Tuchel has become under pressure as England boss after a first ever loss to African opposition just four games into his tenure. Having laboured to a 1-0 victory over minnows Andorra in World Cup qualifying on Saturday, Tuchel made 10 changes but it made little difference as Senegal eased to a comfortable victory in Nottingham through goals by Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra and Cheikh Sabaly.
Harry Kane’s Statement After Lossing To Senegal
“Again, not really good enough,” Kane told ITV Sport.
“We had again moments; just with and without the ball we aren’t quite clicking, aren’t quite finding the right passes, finding the right tempo.
“One v one, we’re losing duels, we’re losing just that aggressive nature that we’ve had and we got punished, we’re playing against a good side. We just weren’t good enough today.
“We’re not going to panic. But for sure we know we need to do better.”
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“If you know the rules, it’s not handball,” said Kane.
“It obviously puts us back in the game at 2-2 and maybe we go on and win the game so it is quite a big moment.
“But that’s something to discuss with them (the match officials) afterwards.”
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What Did The Coach Thomas Tuchel Say
“Of course, a disappointing result, not sure if we did not maybe deserve a little bit more result-wise.
“But I felt again we were a little bit frozen, not active enough for a long time of the match.
“(We) defended quite well for a long period in the first half, then our best period came when we were 2-1 down.
“We conceded the first two goals, very easy goals that we need to defend better.
“The reaction was good after we were down. I felt suddenly we were more active, more free, more fluid, more aggressive towards the opponent’s goal.
“We had big chances to equalise, we ‘equalised’ (Bellingham’s disallowed effort) and couldn’t get the last one.”
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