Harry Kane made the kind of impact no England skipper hasn’t in decades as his brace enabled a profligate Three Lions side to edge Tunisia 2-1 in their 2018 FIFA World Cup Group G opener on Monday night at the Volgograd Arena.
Kane, who has saved club side Tottenham Hotspur umpteen times, did the trick for his country at his first World Cup, opening the scoring in the 11th minute itself as a Tunisian side in disarray literally invited the frontman to open his account.
The North Africans were all over the place at the back, but the likes of Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling and even defender John Stones just couldn’t find the back of the net as they contrived to miss absolute sitters.
As half-time approached, it looked like Gareth Southgate’s men would take a slim lead to the dressing rooms but disaster struck as Kyle Walker’s stray elbow caught Fakhreddine Ben Youssef in the England box.
Match referee Wilmar Perez didn’t hesitate as he pointed to the spot and Ferjani Sassi’s 35th minute-penalty ensured the sides were level after the opening 45 minutes.
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England kept dominating, but despite the Tunisians being forced into changing their goalkeeper early on, struggled to make the most of their chances.
They did have a genuine penalty shout waved away, however, on either side of half-time as the Tunisian defence wrestled Kane to the floor twice but their appeals fell on deaf ears.
A desperate Southgate sent on the likes of Marcus Rashford and Ruben Loftus-Cheek as he sought to get that vital second goal, but for long swathes of the second half, it looked like Tunisia would hold out for a valuable point.
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It wasn’t to be, as deep in injury-time, in the 92nd minute to be exact, Kane was in the right place at the right time for the second time on the night to nod home a deserved winner for the 1966 champions.
After Belgium had thumped Panama 3-0 in the other Group G game earlier in the day, it was imperative that England at the least, eked out a win and they did the job, even if they made heavy weather of it.
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They next take on Panama on Sunday and will hope to make it two wins from two as they seek to realistically top their group.