'There’s no hiding from it, it hurts,' says England's 'gutted' Harry Kane

Harry Kane said he is “absolutely gutted” and admitted there is “no hiding from it, it hurts”, in response to his devastating penalty miss that cost England heavily as they lost 2-1 to France in their World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday night. 

Kane's England teammates have rallied around the striker, who became the country's top scorer drawing level on 53 goals with Wayne Rooney with his 54th-minute penalty to make the score 1-1 but blasted a second over with the chance to make it 2-2 six minutes from the final whistle. 

Kane tweeted on Sunday: “Absolutely gutted. We’ve given it everything and it’s come down to a small detail, which I take responsibility for.

“There’s no hiding from it, it hurts and it’ll take some time to get over it but that’s part of sport.”

Midfielder Jordan Henderson said England would not have made the World Cup quarterfinals Kane's goals and said the Tottenham Hostpur star would come back stronger from the missed penalty.

“We know how many penalties Harry has scored for us,” the England midfielder said after a defeat at Al Bayt Stadium where England outplayed defending champions France for long periods of the quarterfinal.

“He scored the first one and how many goals he has scored to get us here. He'll be stronger for it in the long run I'm sure. He's a world-class striker and our captain and we wouldn't have even been here without him.”

Kane was top scorer in Russia four years ago with six goals as England reached the last four but the 29-year-old managed only two in Qatar.

England manager Gareth Southgate also backed his captain.

“For me, we win and lose as a team and we've let a couple of goals in and missed a few chances,” he said.

“Harry has been incredible for us, so reliable in those sorts of situations. We wouldn't be here, but for the number of goals he scored for us.”

England had been confident of a good showing in Qatar after reaching the World Cup semifinals in 2018 and the final of the European Championship last year.

“It feels like a missed chance because I felt the performances were really good and the focus and the hunger was good every single day,” Henderson added.

“You've got to give credit to France, they're a good team. But I think I felt it was there for us to win tonight. ”

England were chasing the game from the 17th minute when Aurelien Tchouameni put the reigning champions in front with a rasping long-range strike.

“It was disappointing to go 1-0 down but I thought we showed character and the mentality to keep going in the second half and find the equaliser,” Henderson said. “We gave it everything and it wasn't our night.” 

Southgate said he did not think England could have done any more and had given the world champions a great game.

“I think it was just the key moments, you're playing in a high level game where there aren't going to be many chances created and within most of the big moments we were in the right place.

“We had more shots on goal and yeah the goalkeeper's made a couple of really good saves for us. But it's a game of fine margins.”

Southgate cut a disconsolate figure after but said he would not make any decision about his future in the heat of the moment.

"Whenever I finish these tournaments, you need time to make the correct decision. Emotionally, you're going through many different feelings.

"The energy that it takes in these tournaments is enormous. I want to take the right decision, whatever that is, for the team.

"In the past my feelings have fluctuated in the immediate aftermath of tournaments."

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