Kane proud of England's 'fantastic journey' after World Cup exit

Harry Kane is confident England are on the right track after its run in Russia came to an end at the semifinal stage.

Published : Jul 12, 2018 11:06 IST , MOSCOW

England players are dejected after falling in the FIFA World Cup semifinals.
England players are dejected after falling in the FIFA World Cup semifinals.
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England players are dejected after falling in the FIFA World Cup semifinals.

Captain Harry Kane believes England has a foundation to build on after proving the doubters wrong by reaching the World Cup semifinals.

Gareth Southgate's men had raised hopes they could end the nation's 52-year wait to win a major tournament in Russia, only to suffer a 2-1 extra-time loss to Croatia on Wednesday.

Kieran Trippier's sublime fifth-minute free-kick put England ahead but Ivan Perisic equalised shortly after the hour, with the Inter man turning provider as his hopeful header set up Mario Mandzukic for the winner.

Read: England has broken through number of barriers, says Southgate

Despite the disappointment, Kane insists he and his compatriots can take great heart from their efforts, having made it to the last four at a World Cup for the first time since 1990.

"It's going to hurt for a while, of course, but we can hold our heads up high," Kane told ITV Sport . "It's been a fantastic journey.

"We got further than anyone else thought we would have, so we've just got to learn from it and take what we can.

"Obviously the next step now is to go one further. It's a great foundation we've built over the last few years with the gaffer. We've just got to carry that on."

Though it almost pushed the match into penalties, England struggled to regain a foothold following Perisic's equaliser.

Kane admitted the failure to build a bigger lead during a controlled first-half performance proved costly.

View: In pictures: CRO vs ENG

"We created some good chances when 1-0 up and maybe we dropped a bit deep at times, we didn't get enough pressure on the ball," he said.

"It's hard. In these big games it's small margins and it went their way today.

"There's a lot we could have done better, but they played well and they made it difficult for us."

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