Video: England fans go wild after Harry Kane’s late winning goal against Tunisia

Three Lions captain scored

Three Lions captain scored twice as Gareth
Southgate’s side beat Tunisia in their World Cup group G opener

One-Minute Read

The 2-1 victory over Tunisia at a fly-infested Volgograd Arena
is the first time the Three Lions have won their first game of a
World Cup since 2006, and it provides them with important momentum
ahead of Sunday’s group G game against Panama, who were beaten 3-0
by Belgium.

England’s hero was Harry Kane, whose double strike took
his tally of international goals to 15 in 25 games, and the villain
of the piece was Kyle Walker, who conceded a controversial penalty
after clumsily catching Fakhreddine Ben Youssef with his
arm.

Ferjani Sassi coolly squeezed the spot kick past the
flailing fingers of Jordan Pickford, just about the only time in
the game that the England goalkeeper was called into action. For
most of the match Pickford was a lonely spectator, looking on as
his teammates dominated their hosts.

A cricket score had looked on the cards early on as
England ran the North Africans ragged. Kane scored the first on 11
minutes, lashing the ball into the net after John Stones’ header
had been well blocked by Tunisia keeper Mouez
Hassen.

England should have had three or four more in the opening
half-hour as they laid siege to the Tunisian goal but chances were
spurned either through lucky saves or poor finishing, notably by
Jesse Lingard who got his legs in a tangle with the goal at his
mercy.

Luckily for England Kane came to the rescue in the second
minute of stoppage time, heading home Harry Maguire’s flick having
earlier been rugby tackled to the ground on two occasions by the
Tunisian defence at set-pieces, offences that went unpunished by
the Colombian referee Wilmar Roldan.

“I’m absolutely buzzing!” exclaimed Kane. “It’s what dreams are made of.
I’m so proud of the lads. We played so well, especially in the
first half. We could have scored more. We kept going. It’s a World
Cup, you go to the last second. It showed good character.”

What they said about… 

The performance

Henry Winter, The Times: “Here was the adversity that
Southgate had talked to his players about, and the need to stay
calm, to concentrate and respond. They did, although it took a long
time for the breakthrough, such was the stubbornness of Tunisian
defending.” 

Alan Shearer, BBC
Sport: “The only disappointing thing was that we created so
many chances [in the first half] but only took one of them. These
are not half chances, these are very, very good chances that we
should be putting in the back of the net.” 

Harry Kane

Dominic Fifield, The Guardian: “His close-range header from
Harry Maguire’s flick deep into stoppage time was a reminder he
will always be England’s talismanic figure. England need more
chances to fall for him given those two chances were his only real
sights of goal, but they can trust in their skipper.”

The penalty

Gary Lineker: “Softest penalty ever.
Ridiculous.” 

Frank Lampard, BBC
Sport: “You do question why Walker’s arm is up at that height.
Obviously Youssef has made a meal of it, but that can happen. But
what I don’t understand is why they can look at that and say it is
a penalty after VAR, but not the challenges on Harry
Kane.” 

The flies

Harry Kane: “We got told before that there was
going to be a lot of flies and when we went out for the warm-up
there were more than we thought. We had some of them in our eyes
and some of them in our mouth. It’s just part of dealing with
whatever comes your way and the team coped with it well.”