ENGLAND legend Alan Shearer has claimed that Harry Kane’s crucial penalty miss against France will haunt him forever.
The Three Lions crashed out of the World Cup on Saturday after suffering a 2-1 defeat to the reigning champions.
Aurelien Tchouameni broke the deadlock just 17 minutes into the game with an excellent long-range strike into the bottom corner.
Kane later levelled the score from the penalty spot after Bukayo Saka was fouled by Tchouameni in the box.
Former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud then fired the French back into the lead following an inch-perfect pass from Antoine Griezmann.
But, as England scrambled to get back into the game, France defender Theo Hernandez gave away another penalty for a clumsy challenge on Mason Mount.
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Kane stepped up to the spot again, but this time he blazed his strike over the crossbar with just six minutes of normal time remaining.
Reflecting on the England captain’s vital miss after the game, Shearer expressed fears that it will likely haunt him for the rest of his life.
In his column for The Athletic, the Newcastle icon wrote: “Sometimes s*** happens and then sleep deserts you. Harry is an exceptional centre-forward, an exceptional player full stop.
“I know his position and I know his mindset and I know he will put his head on the pillow on this night and the next and a few more besides and he will blink and stare at the ceiling.
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“He will re-live his penalty over and over. He will revisit it, he will re-take it and in his mind’s eye he will convince himself that this time, he’s scoring. And I promise you, it will stay with him forever.”
During his post-match interview, England boss Gareth Southgate was quick to offer his full support to Kane, who was “very, very low” after the full-time whistle.
Southgate said: “Tonight it is very difficult. When you get a second penalty and it’s a goalkeeper that knows you really well as well, there’s a lot involved in that situation.
“He’s the best. But the best are still 85 per cent. So even the best are going to miss at times – and that’s football.
“There is nobody I’d have rather had in that situation and, if we had one tomorrow, I’d feel exactly the same way.
“For me, he has been a fantastic leader of this group through this tournament. I thought his performance tonight was his best of the tournament – his hold-up play, his link play, as well the first goal that he scored.
“But in these tournaments, lots of countries have a similar situation frankly. It’s cruel for him, because he will feel disappointed in himself but he shouldn’t.
“As I said, it’s 100 minutes of football and there’s a lot of things that can happen in terms of winning a game.
“As you’d expect, he’s very, very low but he’s got nothing to reproach himself for. We’re in the position we are as a team because of his leadership, because of his goals over a long period of time.
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“Even if that goes in we’ve still got a lot to do to win the game. For us, no recriminations. We’ve always stuck together as a team. The group of players have been brilliant and we win and lose together.”
Following Saturday’s result, France progress to the World Cup semi-final where they will take on Morocco.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
