Harry Kane has urged England to find the “missing piece” and get over the line in the quest for World Cup glory, but accepts Thomas Tuchel’s demand for improvements.
Kane’s side booked a semifinal date with Argentina on Wednesday with a hard-fought extra-time win over Norway in Saturday’s quarterfinal.
The meeting with Lionel Messi and Co. will be England’s second semifinal in three World Cups, following their run to the last four in 2018, while they have been beaten finalists in successive European Championships.
Kane has said it is a golden period in the country’s history but wants to finish the job off and bring some silverware home.
“It’s been an extremely successful era of our national team,” the Bayern Munich striker said. “Of course, we want to get over the line. That is the missing piece now.
“We’re knocking on the door. We’re getting to these semifinals and finals. It’s a big week. We’ve got eight days left on this tournament.
“We’ve been together six weeks and shown every bit of desire for the badge and we’re going to need an even bigger push now for the last week or so.
“Ultimately we are in a semifinal of the World Cup and that has not always been the case for this national team so we have to enjoy it.”
England needed a Jude Bellingham masterclass to take them past Norway in the Miami heat as the Real Madrid midfielder took his tally to six for the tournament.
Despite the intense heat and humidity, where temperatures felt 44°C, Tuchel was unhappy with his side’s performance against the Scandinavians.
Kane accepts there is more to come from England, which will need to be the case if they are to be crowned world champions next weekend, with Argentina and then a potential final against France or Spain in front of them.
“When he sees us train and sees the closeness of us and sees what we can do, especially with the players we have, the way we attack, our one-on-ones and the skills, he just wants to see that version of us,” the captain added.
“He knows as much as anyone that it’s not as simple as that, we’re playing against good opposition and good teams.
“He’s trying to drag it out of us and we know ourselves we have another level that we can reach.
“We haven’t seen that yet, we’ve shown it in glimpses. Against Norway it was in glimpses.
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“But we haven’t had full control that we would like and I feel we can have.
The striker also reflected on the quality of the tournament by the business end.
“But at this stage of the tournament you are playing against the best teams in the world,” Kane said.
“We’ll be playing against one of the best teams in the world in the semifinal, so the most pleasing thing is that we are in a semifinal and we can still feel like we can improve.
“But I don’t think it is something to get really over the top about. We are showing a lot of good things.”
