Harry Kane has dismissed the claim that the penalty he scored against France in the quarter-finals affected his second penalty as England exited the World Cup. The Tottenham star scored from 12 yards after Bukayo Saka was brought down by Aurelien Tchouameni but blazed over a second spot kick less than 30 minutes later.
Before Tchouameni felled Saka, the Real Madrid midfielder gave France the lead with a crisp long-range effort that flew into the bottom corner. Kane then equalised from the penalty spot early in the second half which saw him go level with Wayne Rooney as England's all-time top scorer on 53 goals.
Gareth Southgate's side dominated the game, but were caught cold when Olivier Giroud put the world champions back in front with just over 10 minutes to play. Moments later though, the England captain had the chance to draw the game level again when second half substitute Mason Mount won a penalty after VAR intervention.
READ MORE: Gary Neville delivers brutal referee and VAR verdict as England suffer World Cup exit heartbreak
Up against his Spurs team-mate Hugo Lloris, Kane once again went for power towards his preferred side but the ball flew off the turf and into the stands, with France then able to see out the victory and advance to the semi-finals where they will face Morocco.
After the game, Kane was asked about the performance of his country where he delivered a simple explanation of why the Three Lions lost. The England captain told ITV Sport: “On the night we were probably the team that created the better chances. We had good spells in the game, but as you know, big games come down to fine details and margins, and they got theirs right and we didn’t.”
Understandably a question had to be asked over Kane's second penalty miss, and although it's possible his first affected his second spot kick, the 29-year-old dismissed those claims.
"I'm always someone who prepares for, if I get one penalty in a game, two penalties, I always have an idea of what I want to do. I can't fault my preparation or anything like that."
"It was just the execution on the night. The first one was great and the second one, I just didn’t quite hit it how I wanted to.
“That’s just something I’ll take on the chin. It will hurt for sure, the whole game will hurt, we had full belief in what we wanted to achieve. As captain, I couldn’t be more proud of the boys.”
As a player who has been taking penalties for as many seasons as Kane has, this is not the first time he has been given the chance to score two penalties in one game. Earlier this season in the Champions League after scoring from the spot against Eintracht Frankfurt, Kane blazed over in a similar fashion to his miss against France.
A few seasons ago, while the other way round, Kane missed one of his two penalties against Liverpool, although that was saved by Loris Karius.
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