Harry Kane insisted the situation surrounding Manchester City had little bearing after two of Enzo Maresca’s players made crucial mistakes in England’s 3-2 defeat to Spain.
The news that City had been found guilty on 114 of the 115 Premier League financial regulation charges levelled against them overshadowed the build-up to Sunday’s Nations League meeting at Wembley.
England’s Marc Guehi, Nico O’Reilly and Elliot Anderson, plus Spanish captain Rodri, could all have been forgiven for keeping tabs on developments since the story broke on Friday.
England’s costly errors
England looked on course for victory after City centre-back Guehi gifted Lamine Yamal an opening goal inside two minutes. Anthony Gordon found a 36th-minute equaliser before Kane put England in front at the end of an absorbing first half.
Kane squandered the chance to extend the lead as he struck the crossbar with a 53rd-minute penalty. Alex Baena and Mikel Oyarzabal both netted to ensure the reigning world and European champions emerged with maximum points.
Kane’s verdict on the performance
The result saw Luis de la Fuente’s men go top of Group C after one match, level on points with Croatia, who beat the Czech Republic away. England and the Czech Republic meet in Prague on Tuesday evening.
Asked if the period between the end of the first half and the start of the second was perhaps the best football England had played during his time with the national team, Kane told ITV Sport: ‘Yeah, I think so.
‘We reached good levels at the World Cup but didn’t quite put a full 90 minutes together. It was probably similar again today. We had a lot of good moments, though, that period was as good as we’ve played in a long, long time and that’s the standard that we know we can reach.
‘We’re playing against the reigning world and European champions and we went toe to toe. On another day, for sure we would have won that game. We have to take the positives from it. It’s disappointing now, of course, but we have to dust ourselves down and go again in a few days.’
Tuchel on City distractions
Guehi and O’Reilly were both guilty of glaring errors, the former gifting Yamal his early opener before the latter needlessly gave away possession for Baena’s strike on the hour-mark.
Asked if the news surrounding City had been a distraction, Kane replied: ‘Yeah, there was a discussion. But at the end of the day, when we’re with England, that’s been a big plus for us: we’ve kind of put club football to one side and it was no different this week. The boys will deal with that when they’re back at their clubs. Right now, we have another two weeks with the national team and that’s the most important thing.’
England boss Thomas Tuchel responded: ‘Not for me but I can imagine for the Manchester City players. For the players who have more time than me, for sure I can imagine they talk about it.’
Tuchel bemoaned the ‘terrible’ blunders that his side produced. ‘Terrible start, the worst start possible. It makes it so difficult to be behind against this kind of team,’ he added. ‘The reaction was very good. After ten, 12 minutes, we were the better team, but we made two or three big mistakes. We conceded big chances but overall we were better, we dominated, we were in the opponent’s half, created, scored two goals. I think it was our best 15 minutes after the whistle.’
