I’m gutted for Kane after England World Cup heartbreak but Saka WAS fouled in build up to France opener, says Wilshere

I AM devastated for the England lads.

They gave it everything and Harry Kane is really going to be hurting for a very long time after missing that penalty.

Unfortunately football can be very cruel and this emerging England team, which shows so much promise, will have to wait another 18 months or so for a chance to win an elusive trophy at the Euros.

It was opening up for us with Morocco in the semi-finals, we were getting close to glory.

But my old Arsenal mate Olivier Giroud turned out to be the match-winner.

To be honest, it wasn’t one of his better games.

We contained him and Kylian Mbappe pretty well.

Sadly, as I warned Sun readers in my pre-match column, Olivier is a man to be reckoned with.

And that header of his was classic Giroud — getting ahead of defenders to make them pay.

It’s hard to take in that we lost, because for all we were one down at half-time, I still felt comfortable.

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We’d certainly shown enough going forward.

Kane looked good and was unlucky with that close-range effort which his club-mate Hugo Lloris did well to come out and smother.

We were also probing down the flanks and you felt at any moment we might just get the break we needed.

Phil Foden was getting on the ball and Bukayo Saka was driving at them.

But, equally, Antoine Griezmann was class in the French midfield.

He was finding space all over the park and everything was going through him.

His link-up play was top drawer and at times England didn’t seem to know how to deal with him.

But he was getting away with a few fouls and the booking he eventually got was deserved.

While I thought Mbappe was relatively quiet, the way he wrestled his way clear to help set up their first goal showed how he doesn’t need much of a chance to hurt you.

Even when the ball went back to Aurelien Tchouameni, I doubt fans were too worried.

In fact I was thinking, ‘Go on then, hit it from there’.

It seemed a heck of a long way out to have a go, we had plenty of bodies in the way — and while the Real Madrid star is a fine defensive midfielder — he’s not noted for his goalscoring.

But you have to hand it to him for the strike.

It was a beauty and somehow it found a way through to beat Jordan Pickford, who may have been unsighted as Tchouameni swung his boot.

There’s always something you can do to try to prevent a goal — and you could argue England should have closed him down better.

But the chances of scoring from there were not high.

That said, Saka was definitely fouled at the start of the move, he’s so good at drawing those fouls but he’s an honest player.

My kids were going absolutely mad at the injustice of it.

There was a foul on Kane as well — with big calls for a penalty — but for me it was just outside the box.

We got on the front foot again after the break and while Olivier got that second goal for France, I still believed we could get back into it.

And we had the chance with Harry’s penalty.

You don’t expect him to miss, he’s so good.

It will be no consolation to Harry — but it happens to the best of them.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk