Croatia 2-1 England: Hits and flops from the game, World Cup 2018

#2 Flop: Harry Kane

This is not to exaggerate, but the number of chances sent begging by Harry Kane could have won England, not only the semifinal but even the World Cup.

Kane was sent clear through on goal in the first half after Croatia fluffed their lines and messed up big-time in communication. What did he do? Hit the post, then sent the rebound flying over when the opposition defence was still playing catch-up.

One event which would repeat through the night, only the circumstances and types of shots would vary. Kane did try to play Sterling through a couple of times but was himself quite poor on the number of occasions he found himself with a chance to extend his team’s lead.

He was marked and targeted at times, but not to the extent he kept going down theatrically. As someone who is trying to stake claim to be the world’s best pure striker, he did his reputation more harm than good on this evening.

Southgate may even wonder ‘what could have been’ if he had introduced Jamie Vardy a bit earlier than deep in extra time.