'We'll use this as a starting point': Skipper Kane on England's five-goal win over Serbia

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) England skipper Harry Kane, who became the fifth-most capped Three Lions player, reflected on a 5-0 win over Serbia

Kane reached yet another milestone with victory over Serbia in the Three Lions’ 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifying campaign.

The skipper surpassed Bobby Moore to become the fifth-most capped England player with 109 appearances and counting after featuring in tonight’s game in Belgrade, scoring his 74th goal for his country in the process.

Nevertheless, the Bayern Munich forward was focused on the game and England’s performance in the aftermath of an impressive showing.

“There’s been a lot of noise around the outside, but we’ve been happy with what we’ve been doing,” said Kane. “It’s not always been easy against opposition who are sitting in a block of eleven when we have to break them down and be patient.

“We knew tonight would be a really big test against better opposition and better players, we said we wanted to show what we can do especially without the ball with the high pressure and make it difficult for them.

“They played a lot of long balls which we recovered well and with the ball we were electric in moments and made it really difficult in the one-v-one battles and we took our chances well.”

Kane opened the scoring for England with 33 minutes on the watch before Thomas Tuchel’s side turned up the heat and came away with all three points and a 5-0 win away from home.

“We made it fairly comfortable in the end, so it’s credit to the boys and in an attacking sense, I think we got everything right today with the ball movement, the one-v-one battles and when I was dropping we had runners in behind and when others were dropping, we still had runners,” continued Kane.

“We just used everything to our advantage and we knew with the pace and quality of players in our team, we could dominate and that’s what happened.

“It was nice to get some set-piece goals too. The set-piece coach Paul has been waiting for that one and we got a few tonight!”

Kane broke the deadlock in the first half to get England up and running

And with England entering the World Cup season, Kane and his team-mates have one eye on the tournament next summer.

“This is the time when the competition starts, the formation and the way we play and the style is going to be set in stone,” noted Kane.

“Of course, there might be a few games where we have to change a little bit depending on opposition, but we want to play our way – we want to be on the front foot and win the ball back quick and when we lose the ball, recover well.

“And with the ball, lots of movement and lots of pace and playing out through the lines. You could say today was the perfect template and we’re going to have difficult games from now until the World Cup but we’ll use this as a starting point and the standard’s been really high.”

--IANS

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