England striker Harry Kane believes the "Three Lions" are close to the level of world champions Spain, despite losing their opening match of the Nations League. The team, led by manager Thomas Tuchel, coped with the dynamics of "Wembley" and overcame an early goal by Lamine Yamal in the second minute to take a 2-1 lead at the break thanks to quick goals from Anthony Gordon and Kane.
The captain then had a chance to make it 3-1 but slipped from the penalty spot, hitting the crossbar, and Spain fought back strongly to earn the three points with goals from Alex Baena and Mikel Oyarzabal for a 3-2 final score.
"We are close, without a doubt. I think anyone who watched the game saw it. They have the trophies to prove their class, so until we do the same, we can only talk. We have to show it on the pitch. We showed a lot of good things on the pitch, but in the decisive moments we fell a little short. We are still among the four best teams in the world. We finished third at the World Cup, so we're definitely close and I think they must have felt that. It hurts a little more now. We know the result could have been different if we had been a little more precise, but there are still a lot of games to come. Tough games during this training camp and then - and two more tough games in November. It will be an opportunity to test ourselves again," Kane told the media.
The Bayern Munich striker believes this is the model for future success.
"The way we played without the ball and the pressure we applied forced them into a lot of mistakes. It doesn't matter who you are or what your style of play is - if you press hard, win the tackles and move the ball forward, you'll have excellent chances. That's exactly what happened. "We felt that they were the world champions, especially with the score 2:2, but we have to take the positives from our game between the 20th and 60th minute," he added.