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PRIDE OF ENGLAND

Kane makes history by becoming record goalscorer on glory night in Naples

SAMI MOKBEL at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium

HARRY KANE is England’s greatest ever goalscorer after his record 54th goal helped the Three Lions to victory in Naples last night.

The England captain buried a penalty — 103 days after missing from the spot in the World Cup quarter-final against France — just before half-time to go past Wayne Rooney’s 53. ‘It means everything,’ said Kane. ‘A magical moment.’

Declan Rice had put England in front on 13 minutes to kickstart Euro 2024 qualifying. And despite Mateo Retegui pulling a goal back and Luke Shaw’s late red card, England held on for a first « away win over Italy for 62 years.

AMID all the bold talk of England winning the next European Championships there sits a realistic understanding of what will be required.

Even more goals from the record breaking Harry Kane, the continued development of the precocious Jude Bellingham and certainly the emergence of another reliable option at centre half. And then there is Declan Rice.

The more this team develops under Gareth Southgate, the greater the importance of the central midfielder currently playing for West Ham.

This was Rice’s 40th cap and he is only 24 years old. For those who like such club-related statistics, only Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Trevor Brooking have more. If Rice doesn’t pass a century by the time he is at his peak then something may have gone wrong.

There has been talk recently of his goals, or lack of them. Some of that has come from our own columnist Graeme Souness. Here on a night that grew harder for Southgate’s England the longer it went on, Rice scored one.

But for this England team that is not his value. Rice is the dependable foundation of Southgate’s midfield and once again here he exhibited a maturity of application across two halves of football that could not have been more different.

Superior by a distance and two goals up in the first half, England coasted. Across a second period that grew harder and more fraught the longer it went on, Rice’s intelligence, energy and hunger for work was increasingly required.

This was a night that should not have been this hard for England. This is not a good Italian side and had it not been for Harry Maguire’s error just before the hour, it’s quite possible that England would have won by more.

But Italy’s goal changed everything here and as the pressure on the visitors’ goal increased so did the importance of the England number four providing a shield to Maguire and central defensive partner John Stones.

There is a toughness and a rough edge to Rice now that is impossible to ignore. Towards the end of the first half when England won their penalty, it was Rice (below) who stood his ground on the spot deflecting away Italian attempts to put Kane off his game.

If Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma didn’t know any English swear words before this night in Naples then he certainly will now. It is things like this that mark out a player.

These are the things a manager notices. They are signs of an increase in confidence and selfworth, a heightened awareness of a player’s sense of importance to a team.

Italy had been given the big build up beforehand. The tribute to the late Gianluca Vialli just prior to the emergence of the teams was genuinely moving. But this Italian side was initially laid bare. In their new look Adidas kit, Roberto Mancini’s team didn’t look much like Italy.

For the same period, England’s football was assured and unfussy. They played with a certainty that comes from a knowledge that they are increasingly capable.

Rice was important in all of that. In this England team his role is straightforward. Now that Southgate has moved on from the threeman central defensive unit he previously deployed in games against good teams, Rice is his security.

Sitting just ahead of Maguire and Stones, it is hard to overstate his role’s significance. Bellingham has helped with this. The Borussia Dortmund teen is so precociously gifted going forward that it feels natural that Rice sits deeper.

And he is good at it, too. There is a reason many feel he will end up as a central defender and it’s simply that he possesses the necessary attributes. He reads the game effortlessly, he can tackle and he heads well.

Here, when it suddenly got rather tougher for England in the second half, he became more important than ever. Earlier there had been the odd attempt to get closer to Bellingham. Once Italy scored, he was required to simply place another bolt on the door. Italy’s strike served to improve the mood here and with that the scale of England’s challenge.

This had felt straight forward in the first half but now it did not. Maguire’s mistake had offered Italy a route back in to the game but the responsibility to see the game out was now collective.

Thatt EnglandEld managedd it willill dod an awful lot for them. It would have been one thing to beat Italy away for the first time in 60-odd years in a comfortable fashion.

It was quite another to come through and do it when the Italian kitchen suddenly got warm.

EURO 2024

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2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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