Captain Harry Kane said England had a ‘fantastic tournament’ and believes the Three Lions can ‘hold our heads high’ after losing the EURO 2020 Final against Italy.
The Azzurri beat the English in a penalty shootout on Sunday and Kane believes ‘penalties is the worst’ way to lose a Final, but stressed Gareth Southgate’s men are ‘on the right track’.
“I couldn’t have given more. The boys couldn’t have given more,” Kane told BBC One. “Penalties is the worst feeling in the world when you lose.
“It wasn’t our night, but it’s been a fantastic tournament and we should hold our heads high. Of course, it’s going to hurt now. It’s going to hurt for a while, but we’re on the right track and we’re building and hopefully we can progress from this next year.”
Luke Shaw scored after only one minute and 57 seconds, the quickest goal in a European Championship Final ever, but Leonardo Bonucci drew Italy level and the Azzurri eventually turned the game around.
“We were playing against a very good side,” Kane continued. “We got off to the perfect start. Maybe dropped a little too deep sometimes.
“They had a lot of the ball. We looked fairly in control, they didn’t create too many chances. They got their breakthrough from the set piece and after that was 50-50.
“In extra time we grew into the game and had a few hafd chances. Penalties is penalties. We went through a process. The boys did everything they could, it just wasn’t our night.”
Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho entered towards the end of the extra time to take penalties in the shootout, but both missed, before 19-year-old Bukayo Saka missed the decisive penalty.
The captain was asked what he told the players who missed their spot kicks for England: “You’ve got to hold your heads high. It’s been a fantastic tournament.
“Anyone can miss a penalty. We win together, we lose together. We’ll learn and grow from it. Those boys will grow from it, and it will give us more motivation for the world cup next year.”
Kane then went on to explain how the Three Lions will reflect on the tournament as a whole and stressed the lads are now aiming to continue the progress.
“We should be extremely proud as a group of what we have achieved,” he continued. “We’re all winners and want to win so it will probably hurt for a while and it will hurt for the rest of our careers, but that’s football. We progressed well form Russia and now is about continuing that.”