Football
Kane urges England teammates to seize amazing Euro 2020 chance
Harry Kane has told his England team-mates they have an “amazing opportunity” to win Euro 2020 in front of their own fans.
Gareth Southgate begins the qualifying campaign against Czech Republic on Friday night as they start the long road to their own “home tournament”, with matches being staged across the continent before Wembley stages the semis and final.
England captain Kane insists they will never have a better chance of lifting a major trophy at the national stadium, something that hasn’t happened since the 1966 World Cup.
The striker believes his team can handle the expectation after making the semi-finals of the World Cup and UEFA Nations League in the past year, and is excited about the new generation of English talent coming through.
“We know the chance to play a Euros where most of the games are at home is an amazing opportunity,” said Tottenham star Kane. “You don’t often get that in your career, so we will try to make the most of it.
“It is a great incentive to have the opportunity to play in a European Championship where we could have quite a few games at Wembley. It is exciting. I have said before to have a chance to win a trophy in an England shirt is not very often.
“People expect us to qualify and they think it is going to be an easy group but it is never that easy. We have to go and be professional. Of course we back ourselves to go through, but we still have to go and do it. It is important we start well and hopefully build on that.”
England go to Montenegro for their second qualifier on Monday, in a group also containing Bulgaria and Kosovo. The group winners and runners-up will qualify directly for the finals.
Kane added: “I think we feel that expectation where people now expect us to do well and I think before the World Cup there was no expectation. It is great that we have turned that around. It is down to us as players to use that experience we have had and to manage expectations.
“We know we want to win it and we want to make fans happy and be proud but we know there is a long way ahead. It won’t be easy. Every top team is trying to improve and we saw some top nations at the World Cup like France and Croatia but we have to focus on ourselves.”
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