Three things we learned from England win as Harry Kane saves World Cup dream | OneFootball

Inspirational captain rescues Three Lions from humiliation as daunting showdown with Mexico now awaits in last 16

A mouthwatering clash with Mexico in Mexico City beckons for England, but how close they came to perhaps the most humiliating exit from a major tournament in their history.

Harry Kane has now scored more World Cup goals than Pele, and it was his endurance, and enduring brilliance, that saved England from exiting at the round of 32 stage to a superb DR Congo side.

The Atlanta Stadium was a beautiful setting for the game, just as Thomas Tuchel had said it would be, and gave rise to a buoyant atmosphere throughout, trapping all the noise and colour in.

But it nearly had England trapped, too. They made it out eventually but trailed to Brian Cipenga’s opening goal for all of 68 minutes before Kane scored the first of a brace to send the Three Lions to the Azteca.

Sebastien Desabre, the DR Congo manager who used to be a florist, had insisted pre-match that the challenge was “in no way insurmountable” for his side, adding of England: “We have already achieved our goals in this tournament. They have a long way to go to achieve theirs.”

At their first World Cup for 52 years, the Leopards had drawn with Portugal in their opening game, pushed Colombia all the way and reached the knockout stages for the very first time.

They looked set to make more history at England’s expense. Noni Madueke lost the man he should have been marking, leaving Djed Spence to cover two. Cipenga lurked, free, and fired low past Jordan Pickford at his near post to register a first international goal.

England looked shellshocked, understandably, but were unable to shake it.

A long passage where they could not get the ball clear was a humiliating watch for the tens of thousands of England fans inside Atlanta Stadium, and Jude Bellingham was booked for a nasty challenge born out of frustration.

Marcus Rashford let a slow and simple pass roll under his foot and go out of play. The boos that followed were for the first-half hydration break, but they might as well have been for England.

This was not like the Euro 2024 round of 16 encounter with Slovakia, where Bellingham’s bicycle kick saved a team not creating chances. And neither did it resemble the Euro 2016 humiliation against Iceland, where England had 72 minutes to find their leveller but passed themselves to death.

England had a host of opportunities. It was finding a way past goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi that was the problem.

Relief: Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane celebrate after the England captain’s late heroics against DR Congo

England’s catalogue of chances

England’s victory ended a run of 13 World Cup games in which conceding the opening goal had denied them victory. For the first time since the 1966 final, they trailed but won.

For more than an hour of the game, though, Cipenga’s goal separated the two teams.

England kept plugging away but could not score. Madueke’s free-kick struck Ezri Konsa and the ball bounced just wide. Bellingham had a couple of headers pushed clear by Mpasi.

Croydon-born Aaron Wan-Bissaka kept Rashford out with a defiant block on the line. Kane was denied a penalty he felt was stonewall but the referee felt he’d been looking for. The whistle went.

And after the restart, nothing much was different. Rashford found some space, darted at DR Congo, twisting Chancel Mbemba this way and that, yet it was the side of the net that rippled, not the back of it.

Then the best save of all, Mpasi readjusting his body superbly to push Bellingham’s deflected shot clear.

It seemed England were bound to do everything but score and DR Congo to progress. Then came their captain’s decisive impact.

Chances: England initially found DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi in inspired form

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Kane saves England again

Only five men have ever scored more goals in World Cup history now than Kane, and it was his quality that proved the difference yet again.

On the day he overtook two greats in Billy Wright and Bobby Moore to captain England more times than anyone else, 91, he led by example with crystal clarity.

Contesting every call the referee made, especially after Mpasi felling him in the first half did not result in a spot-kick, Kane never cowered. He stood up, rose highest, and nodded past Mpasi from the crisp, clipped cross of substitute Anthony Gordon, who made a real impact.

The second, also assisted by Gordon, was all about Kane. He picked the ball up with back to goal but got clear of his marker, then clear of the next defender, and hammered England into the round of 16 on the turn. Mpasi was stranded as Kane and England made it out alive.