Euro 2020 final: In-form Harry Kane wants to ‘finish the job’ by firing England to glory
The captain has four goals in his last three games.
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Your support makes all the difference.Harry Kane is out to “finish the job” and fire England to Euro 2020 glory by maintaining his scoring streak.
The Three Lions captain promised he would peak at the right time amid fierce criticism after he went through the group stage without a goal.
And he has been true to his word as four goals in the last three games have put England one game away from a first piece of silverware since the 1966 World Cup, with a Wembley final against Italy the last hurdle left to overcome.
He grabbed the nerve-settling second goal against Germany, netted a brace against Ukraine and then scored the winner in extra-time in the semi-final against Denmark.
It is the reverse of how things panned out for him three years ago at the 2018 World Cup when he scored six goals before the quarter-final but lost his edge for the big games against Sweden and, crucially, Croatia.
Kane says he learned from that experience and was able to shut out the noise when some critics were calling inexplicably for him to be dropped.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have scored three or four goals in the group stage and got off to a fantastic start and gone from there,” he said.
“But it was about the energy. I felt in the World Cup, with such an amazing start, with scoring in the last minute against Tunisia, a lot of energy was used up because of the emotion.
“Panama was the same. We had an amazing game, I scored a hat-trick and there was a lot of talk, a lot of mental energy [spent up].
“Colombia was the same. Not just physically, but maybe mentally I lost a little bit towards the latter stages.
“So going into this one with more experience, it was just about not getting too carried away, whether I score or don’t score.
“Obviously we were winning games which was the most important thing, so it was just about staying in the moment, not getting carried away and knowing that as a player and as a team we were on the right track.
“Thankfully it’s worked out pretty well and I guess that’s all part of the learning curve of playing in major tournaments and gaining that experience. Hopefully I’ve got enough left to finish the job tomorrow.”
The nation has been swept up by football fever as the tournament has gone on, with the country set to come to a standstill when the game kicks off at 8pm.
The players got a flavour of the excitement surrounding the game with fans lining the streets as the team coach left the squad’s St George’s Park training base.
And Kane says his side are determined to make everyone proud.
“That is the challenge now. We have been knocking down barriers along the way but we started this tournament with an aim to win it and we have this opportunity tomorrow night,” he said.
We know how much it means to the English fans all over the country, so we are proud to be representing them, hopefully we can do them proud tomorrow night
“To see the fans on the street and the reception we had when we pulled up to the hotel and as we were leaving St George’s Park, it shows us just how big of an occasion it is.
“In Russia we were over there and in our own bubble, we could see videos of what it was like at home, but we couldn’t really experience it ourselves.
“Even this camp we have been on to the next one, on to the next one, just focusing on the next game which we have done for the final, but it is great to see the reception we are getting.
“We know how much it means to the English fans all over the country, so we are proud to be representing them, hopefully we can do them proud tomorrow night.”