Harry Kane has defended Thomas Tuchel's England reign after scoring in their 5-0 thrashing of Serbia.
England thump Serbia 5-0Kane says win a "starting point"Responds to "noise" over Tuchel reignFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
After an uninspiring World Cup qualifier win over Andorra, many feared the worst heading into a tough game against Serbia in Belgrade on Tuesday. But the Three Lions produced the best performance of Tuchel's tenure with a commanding display, in which Kane scored. Now, the Bayern Munich star has had his say on the victory and the "noise" following Tuchel's side.
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He told ITV: "There’s been a lot of noise around the outside performing like that. We’ve been happy with what we’ve been doing. It’s not been easy against some of the opposition who sit in a block of 11. We have to break it down, we have to be patient. Even the game a few days ago [against Andorra], even though it was only 2-0, we feel like we did a lot of things well. We knew tonight would be a really tough test against better opposition, better players, but we said we want to show what we can do with the high pressure and make it difficult for them. They played a lot of long balls, we recovered well. With the ball, we were electric in moments and made it really difficult."
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Tuchel was brought in to finally get England over the line in major tournaments after some near misses with predecessor Gareth Southgate. But recent matches appeared to show the Three Lions were going backwards, not helped by their shock loss to Senegal earlier this year. However, this Serbia win, which makes it six victories from six in this qualifying campaign, could be the springboard they need ahead of next year's World Cup.
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Kane and his fellow England stars will return to their respective clubs now before being called back up by Tuchel ahead of next month's friendly fixture at home to Wales, followed by a trip to Lativa in another World Cup qualifier.