\n<\/p>\n
England’s reaction was an explosion of celebration and sheer relief, a largely dreadful performance transformed into dramatic victory by their magnificent captain.<\/p>\n
The celebration was for that place in the last 16.<\/p>\n
The relief will have been Tuchel’s, who would surely have been unable to survive such embarrassment had England lost, irrespective of his contract extension.<\/p>\n
Relief, too, for the Football Association, who placed such faith in the German and handed him the sole mission of winning this World Cup.<\/p>\n
And it was all down to Kane.<\/p>\n
Kane attracts superlatives and respect like a magnet. Every bit of it deserved – as proved by the stats left behind by his latest feat.<\/p>\n
He now has five goals in this World Cup, as the race for the Golden Boot becomes a sprint between Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi, with Tuchel saying: “They are all sharks. They smell blood.”<\/p>\n
Tuchel added: “These big guys at this World Cup, do they watch each other? And then they go ‘not with me, then I score, then I do a hat-trick, then you go’. What is going on? Crazy.<\/p>\n
“Harry is so, so good. He’s our captain. He’s our leader. He decides football matches with unbelievable finishes and did it here twice. The second one was just a brilliant goal.”<\/p>\n
Kane now moves above Pele to go joint sixth on the all-time World Cup scorers list with 13, and now has 84 goals for England, putting him level with legendary Hungarian Ferenc Puskas in ninth on all-time international scorers list.<\/p>\n
He is the first England player to score twice in a World Cup knockout stage match since Gary Lineker against Cameroon in 1990. Kane has now scored five knockout stage goals at a World Cup. Only Lineker, with six, has scored more for England.<\/p>\n
Most remarkably of all, he now has scored 72 goals in 62 games for club and country this season, with 11 for England and 61 for Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n