Harry Kane believes England lacked quality as they were held to a goalless draw by Ghana on Tuesday night.
The mood was high in the Three Lions camp after last week’s rousing 4-2 defeat of Croatia, in which Kane scored a brace, but they faltered in their second group match as they failed to score against Carlos Queiroz’s side.
They were not without chances. Nico O’Reilly hit the crossbar late on, while Marc Guehi saw a header cleared off the line and Kane himself fired over the bar from close range with what was arguably England’s best chance of the match.
Speaking at full-time, he reflected on a difficult match and lauded Ghana’s valiant defending.
“Maybe just a little bit of quality,” the England skipper said, asked what his side was missing on the night. “But these games are tough.
“I've played in these types of games, a lot of us have played in these types of games. Sometimes you need an early goal to open up the match, for them to come out but as the game goes longer at 0-0, they believe more and defend more with their heart.
"It's a game we could've walked away 1-0, 2-0 and moved on. It was never going to be the prettiest game because of the way they played.
“Credit to them, they defended well, dangerous on the counter-attack. Overall, we defended that pretty well. They didn't have many chances. We take the point and move on.”
He continued, admitting he should have buried his late chance to decide the tie.
“We still had chances towards the end there. I'm backing myself to score more often than not.
“One of those, but I've lived the striker life long enough to know they're not always going to go in. I back myself nine times out of 10 but it just didn't fall my way today.
"We wanted that second win today but it weren't to be. But overall we're in a good position and we look forward to the next one.”
England return to World Cup action on Saturday, facing Panama in New York as Ghana travel to play Croatia in a concurrent kick-off.
