England ‘not good enough’ but won’t panic – Harry Kane
By PA Sport staff
Captain Harry Kane insisted England are “not going to panic” following a shock 3-1 friendly loss to Senegal.
Three days on from an underwhelming 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Andorra, Thomas Tuchel’s side were again booed off by fans.
Goals from Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra and Cheikh Sabaly inflicted England’s first defeat to an African nation following Kane’s early opener at the City Ground in Nottingham.
“Again, not really good enough,” Kane told ITV Sport.
“We had again moments; just with and without the ball we aren’t quite clicking, aren’t quite finding the right passes, finding the right tempo.
“One v one, we’re losing duels, we’re losing just that aggressive nature that we’ve had and we got punished, we’re playing against a good side. We just weren’t good enough today.
“We’re not going to panic. But for sure we know we need to do better.”
England thought they had levelled late on through Jude Bellingham but his effort was ruled out on review for an adjudged handball by Levi Colwill.
“If you know the rules, it’s not handball,” said Kane.
“It obviously puts us back in the game at 2-2 and maybe we go on and win the game so it is quite a big moment.
“But that’s something to discuss with them (the match officials) afterwards.”
Defeat for England was a first in four matches since the appointment of manager Tuchel.
The German coach, who was unhappy with the decision of French referee Stephanie Frappart to disallow Bellingham’s effort, said: “Of course, a disappointing result, not sure if we did not maybe deserve a little bit more result-wise.
“But I felt again we were a little bit frozen, not active enough for a long time of the match.
“(We) defended quite well for a long period in the first half, then our best period came when we were 2-1 down.
“We conceded the first two goals, very easy goals that we need to defend better.
“The reaction was good after we were down. I felt suddenly we were more active, more free, more fluid, more aggressive towards the opponent’s goal.
“We had big chances to equalise, we ‘equalised’ (Bellingham’s disallowed effort) and couldn’t get the last one.”