Gareth Southgate rallied around Harry Kane after his late penalty miss brought more World Cup heartache.
England’s head coach reminded the country that Kane’s goals helped the Three Lions reach Qatar after Spurs’ striker blazed over from the spot five minutes from time.
A goal then would have levelled the score but France clung on to book a semi-final spot with Morocco following a 2-1 victory. Southgate said: “For me, we win and lose as a team. We conceded two and missed a few chances.
“Harry’s been incredible for us, so reliable in those situations. We wouldn’t be here but for the number of goals he’s scored for us. We were here to win the tournament. We had the belief we could and with the performance tonight against the reigning champions we’ve got a team that could have done it.
“At key moments when you play in a high-level game there will be chances created. In most of the big moments we were in the right place. We had more shots on goal, their keeper made a couple of good saves but it’s a game of fine margins.”
Jordan Henderson echoed Southgate’s comments, saying: “I don’t know how many penalties he’s scored for us. He scored the first one and how many goals has he contributed for us to get here?
“He’ll be stronger in the long run. He’s a world-class striker, our captain and we wouldn’t be here without him.”
Henderson said that it was a missed opportunity. England were the better team but two moments of individual excellence saw Les Bleus through.
He said: “It’s difficult to find the right words now. I thought we did everything in the game. We were disappointed to to go one-down but we had the character and mentality to keep going and find the equaliser. I can’t say any more. We gave it everything and it wasn’t our night.”
