Kane reflects on ‘unfortunate’ penalty miss in Spain loss

Harry Kane described his penalty miss as “unfortunate” after slipping at the crucial moment in England’s 3-2 defeat to Spain.

The England captain’s standing foot gave way as he struck the spot-kick, causing him to make a double contact with the ball and meaning the effort would not have counted even if it had gone in to make it 3-1.

“It’s a big moment in the game but it’s the life of a footballer and a striker,” Kane said.

“Just unfortunate in that moment for the standing foot to give way and ended up double hitting the ball, so even if it went in it wouldn’t have counted.

“It’s a tough one to take because I work a lot on penalties and always back myself in those situations and it just wasn’t to be on the pitch out there tonight.”

Kane felt England created enough to get more from the game but were let down by their execution in the final third.

“I think we all came off the pitch feeling like it could have been a different result,” he said.

“We had a lot of good moments in their final third and we just lacked the killer instinct, the final pass or delivery, and they are the things we need to improve on going forward.”

Despite the defeat, Kane believes England are close to Spain’s level, although he acknowledged their opponents currently have the silverware to prove their status.

“I think we’re close without a doubt. I think anyone who watched that game can see that,” he added.

“They have the trophies to back it up so until we do that, we can only use words, we have to show it on the pitch.

“We showed a lot of good things but in the big moments we didn’t quite have it today.

“We’re top four in the world, finished third in the World Cup, so without a doubt we’re close and I think they [Spain] would have felt that out there today for sure.”