• [Daily Mirror Icon]
• Sport
• Football
• Harry Kane

Harry Kane tells England teammates where they must improve before Euro 2028

England secured their best finish at a World Cup since 1966 by beating France in the bronze playoff on Saturday evening and Three Lions' captain Kane has issued a message to his teammates

Harry Kane insists England should be proud of their World Cup - even if it will take time to get over the disappointment.

England produced one of the all-time great World Cup matches in their ten goal thriller with France which also delivered their best performance in the tournament on foreign soil.

Thomas Tuchels men left the United States with a bronze medal even if Kane says the whole squad is still wracked with regret and disappointment.

England captain Kane said: A lot of positives. Obviously people are going to be talking about it already. Its the highest finish in 60 years, the highest finish on foreign soil. There is a lot to be proud of.

Of course were still feeling it from the other night, the emotion and the what ifs. That will be with us for a while now.

Im proud of the boys, how we approached this game. It wasnt easy to find the mentality. We said before that every time you represent England it should be a proud moment. Its the least we deserved, to grab a medal.

The game is impossible to judge because its a complete opposite to what that wouldve been if it was a final. It shows the quality we have. To score six against anyone you have to play a certain way and play well.

Every time you get closer, knock on the door. You think youve learned and you have but we just have to keep going.

Bukayo Saka scored a hat-trick, Declan Rice was on target and provided an assist for Ezri Konsa while Jude Bellingham got a brilliant sixth to finally put the game to bed.

France mounted an astonishing comeback from 4-0 down at half time as Kylian Mbappe scored twice, Bradley Barcola was on target while Ousmane Dembele also scored.

It felt at 4-3 that it was going to come crumbling down for England and that collapse would have opened up old wounds from the semi-final defeat to Argentina.

But what it did do was change the mood. There were boos before the game when England boss Tuchels name was read out. The fans are hurting and angry.

Football does move quickly and the heroics in Mexico City followed by the win against Norway are forgotten amid the collapse against Argentina.

But, equally, this should be a game-changer in the other direction. Tuchel needed a quick reaction and it felt like his players, despite the heartbreak, wanted to send a message.

Even if that message was partly what might have been. Saka hit a hat trick and was brilliant which quickly leaves everyone cursing Tuchel for not playing him more.

But that is unfair because Saka has not been at his best. Rice was also brilliant as he wore the armband but he has also struggled because of fitness issues.

Rather than look back with recriminations, England need to embrace the first half performance and enjoy the positives and energy. Eberechi Eze driving forward from midfield. Djed Spence having another blinder. Marc Guehi and Konsa defending well.

This was France and, despite the fightback and crazy nature of the game, England lost in their last two third-place games in 1990 and 2018 and so this was something to be proud of no matter the fact they wished the game had been the final.

Kane was given a rare day off but talked as captain on behalf of the group and now believes they must use the failings as motivation but also learn from their mistakes and take them into the Nations League campaign and Euro 2028.

Kane added: Its easy to go away and talk about it. We need to get better at actually being in those situations. We can train, play the qualifiers I think the Nations League will be big for us, against Spain and Croatia, big teams.

Getting used to those big environments and finding our best form against those teams, like we did against France albeit not in the most competitive match. We have to learn, improve.

The coach will have improved from these learnings. I can talk as much as I want but ultimately its about showing it next time were in that situation.

We still showed signs of what we showed the other night unfortunately, when they started to come back into the game. We couldnt quite get the pressure on the ball and keep the ball. There is stuff we need to improve on.

We know over the next two years until were facing that situation again there is always going to be a question mark. Its something we have to take and use as motivation.

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

Content cannot be displayed without consent [Google Preferred Source Badge]