<\/div>\nThen the drama came.<\/p>\n
Croatia\u2019s talismanic captain Luka Modric dangled out a leg and caught Noni Madueke in the box.<\/p>\n
Kane saw his unconvincing penalty saved by Dominik Livakovic, only for French referee Clement Turpin to order a retake after video replays deemed the stopper had come off his line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tiny, it\u2019s minimal but you can see between the white of the line and the heel of Dominik Livakovic\u2019s boot, there\u2019s green,\u201d former England goalkeeper Joe Hart told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s definitely off his line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turpin once sent off Tuchel in the Champions League and the referee taking charge of the game had been highlighted by English media this week.<\/p>\n
Bayern Munich predator Kane held his nerve second time around, again going to Livakovic\u2019s left but this time in more ruthless fashion to give England the lead after 12 minutes.<\/p>\n
Some pundits, however, weren\u2019t impressed with Kane\u2019s stutter-step run up.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It) should be banned,\u201d former Ghana star Kevin-Prince Boateng said on SBS.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Jude Bellingham of England. Photo by Francois Nel\/Getty Images<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLoud boos rang out for the drinks break, given the match was under a roof and not the unforgiving Texas sun.<\/p>\n
On the half-hour England should have gone 2-0 up, Bellingham narrowly failing to make contact with Madueke\u2019s delicious low cross.<\/p>\n
On 36 minutes Croatia drew level.<\/p>\n
England squandered the ball in midfield, then Petar Sucic left John Stones on the floor with some neat footwork to set up Baturina.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old met the ball first time and whipped it past Jordan Pickford, who got a hand to the ball.<\/p>\n
Zlatko Dalic\u2019s side were level for just six minutes as a Declan Rice corner found Kane unmarked and the captain nodded home.<\/p>\n
It took skipper Kane to 10 World Cup goals, the most of any England player along with Gary Lineker.<\/p>\n
Tuchel, who has made it clear that winning the World Cup is his aim, barely smiled.<\/p>\n
Putting the seal on a frenetic first half, Musa took advantage of more poor England defending in the fifth minute of injury time to stroke the ball in from close range for 2-2.<\/p>\n
<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nRonaldo leaves teammate FRUSTRATED | 00:17<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n Rice praised manager Tuchel for his half-time motivation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll round in the second half, it was a great performance,\u201d Rice told ITV.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Tuchel) was top at half time, the words he used and what he said. It was one of those moments when you are like, \u2018Wow, what a great manager\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second half started just as the first ended \u2013 with a goal \u2013 as Bellingham galloped down the right unchallenged and rolled the ball into the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jude Bellingham argument is over with,\u201d Manchester United legend Gary Neville said on ITV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t be disrespectful to Morgan Rogers because he\u2019s a brilliant player. But Jude Bellingham is the top player. He and Kane in attack are the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former England forward Ian Wright added: \u201cI can\u2019t believe people doubted Bellingham. He is a top, top player.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI can\u2019t remember a chance when England have gone forward and looked so dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane and Nico O\u2019Reilly twice each, and Bellingham, had good chances for a 4-2 lead as England pummelled the Croatia goal.<\/p>\n
With 15 minutes left and England retreating, Croatia had several opportunities, before Rashford made the three points safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first half was nervy and we struggled to find momentum. There were too many passes backwards. Even off the ball, we were not brave enough,\u201d Tuchel told ITV.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved the reaction of the players in the second half. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt took us a while to get going, but we did get going and that is the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane scored twice in the first half as England eventually saw off Croatia 4-2 to launch their World Cup title assault in Texas. Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now > Jude Bellingham, the $213 Real Madrid star, immediately after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":248859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-248858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}