Harry Kane strikes late to take England through to Nations League finals

 
 Harry Kane strikes late to take England through to Nations League finals

 Harry Kane celebrates his late winner at Wembley. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the GuardianIn the end, it became another test of character. An examination of a young side’s ability to rouse themselves just as the occasion was veering cruelly off script, with all that giddy pre-match expectation threatening to give way to familiar, asphyxiating anticlimax. Previous England teams might have cramped up, accepting the worst. Plenty of these players had been left drained and dispirited back at the Luzhniki Stadium in July once Croatia, such familiar opponents, had seized the momentum. But lessons have clearly been learned.This current crop have something about them, a conviction that has been forged by a relaxed, appealing atmosphere around their training camps and a comfort with the style of play implemented and encouraged by the management staff. They appear to be a better team now than they were in the summer, and certainly a squad with more options to explore, so, once behind and chasing, their late rally was almost to be expected. Gareth Southgate’s team were five minutes away from being relegated to Division B of Uefa’s new competition. From one extreme to the other, up stepped the captain to force them into the inaugural finals.

England 2-1 Croatia: Nations League – as it happened

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Harry Kane had actually been enduring the longest scoreless run of his England career, a seven-match blank that had stretched all the way back to Colombia in Moscow in the last 16 of the World Cup. But, after Tin Jedvaj had fouled Ben Chilwell, there was the striker to meet the full-back’s low delivery on the stretch as it fizzed across the six-yard box. The ball squirted past Lovre Kalinic and “the best goalscorer in the world”, according to his manager, had his first England goal in 747 minutes to book that week-long jaunt to Portugal. “We had to live with the pressure, and we did,” said Southgate. “We’ve ended up coming out of an incredibly tough group. In terms of form and world rankings, it was probably the toughest.”

They have done so by demonstrating there is, actually, depth to their options despite only around a third of the players in the Premier League being eligible for selection. The staff have stuck firmly to the philosophy that saw the team prosper in Russia, even if the manager could appreciate the irony that it had taken a long throw from Joe Gomez – with a foot actually planted illegally on the pitch, unnoticed by the assistant referee – and a free-kick flung into the box to prise Croatia apart, rather than all the assured and incisive approach play the hosts had mustered during a dominant opening period when, in truth, their delivery at set plays had been relatively desperate. “Maybe we’re not a new England, and we’re actually the England we’ve always been,” offered Southgate through a smile. The fact his side had become the first England team to come from behind to win in the last 20 minutes of a competitive match since playing Cameroon in the World Cup quarter-final at Italia 90 was more reflective of proper progress.

They had merited this victory, for all that the visitors were hampered by injuries, withdrawals and fatigue having beaten Spain only 66 hours previously. Zlatko Dalic would admit as much, pointing to a first half when Croatia had been stretched to survive a prolonged onslaught, heaving to contain England’s pace and invention from wide. Raheem Sterling scuttled beyond Domagoj Vida too often for comfort, Marcus Rashford gliding into space down the opposite flank, with the full-backs marauding at will.

The chances came and went in flurries, Lovre Kalinic overworked and stretched to thwart Kane, Sterling twice, and Chilwell. Fabian Delph, playing with Jordan Henderson not quite fit enough to start, was authoritative in midfield, an English lead seemingly imminent. But Kane, off balance, skied over the bar, and frustration seemed to set in.

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Therein lay another test. Croatia had offered so little, early wastefulness from Ante Rebic aside, but the same might have been said back in July. Their own belief is unswerving, so there, just before the hour, was the substitute Josip Brekalo exploiting space down England’s left before supplying a fine pass for Nikola Vlasic. His quickly taken pass shifted the ball across for Andrej Kramaric, squeezing space initially from Kyle Walker, to collect near the penalty spot. The striker twisted and turned, seeking out a clear view of goal and flummoxing John Stones and Eric Dier in the process, with his eventual shot flicking up off the Tottenham midfielder to loop agonisingly beyond Pickford.

For a while, doubt did flare, memories of Moscow rearing up with all the early dominance having given way to grim acceptance. Yet Southgate has spritely options to lift a performance these days. Lingard, a stalwart from the summer, and the whippersnapper of the moment, Jadon Sancho, would stretch the visitors’ tiring ranks, freeing up space for teammates to exploit. The former would also hack Vida’s header from his own goalline, having just tapped in an equaliser after Kane’s prod from Gomez’s throw had been blocked improbably by Kalinic with his feet.

The din whipped up by parity would drive England on, with supporters engaged rather than idling away their time making paper aeroplanes to litter the turf. Kane’s glorious finale offered the majority real reward. A year of resurgence marked by a World Cup semi-final, a startling win over Spain in Seville, and the progression of dynamic, young players into the senior setup has now culminated in Nations League success. A four team mini-tournament awaits in June, when a trophy will be up for grabs. “England have a young and extremely fast team,” added Dalic, deadpan as the strains of “Three Lions” boomed over the public address system outside. “It’s coming home very, very soon.”

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