Harry Kane double rescues England after DR Congo threaten huge World Cup shock

World Cup Round of 32: England 2 [Kane 75, 86 ] DR Congo 1 [Cipenga 7]

As England fans streamed to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 30 degree heat, they passed a St George’s cross banner someone had tied to the fence. ‘Price of Greatness is Responsibility. HARRY KANE. Blood Toil Tears & Sweat’.

Responsibility is the price of greatness. Apparently Churchill said it at some point, though it’s not one of his more resonant lines. Harry Kane’s performance against the Democratic Republic of Congo arguably fell a little short of greatness, but in the last quarter of the game he seized the responsibility and scored twice to send England to the last 16.

DRC’s centre backs, Axel Tuanzebe and Chancel Mbemba, had defended heroically for most of a game that their team led 1-0 for nearly 70 minutes, and Kane’s frustration was evident in his increasingly appeals to the referee.

But in the end, Kane outlasted them. When the England captain turned and made space for his match-winning shot 16 yards out, Tuanzebe was clearly too exhausted even to make any attempt at a block.

The air-conditioned interior of the stadium here in Atlanta seemed an unlikely venue for England to come face to face with their heart of darkness. The stands were full of white shirts, though the suspicion that the vast majority of these fans were Americans was strengthened by the way you could see them standing to attention for the Star Spangled Banner half an hour before the game: unlikely behaviour from England fans. There were also many people wearing Premier League jerseys: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, all mingling happily together. In 25 years I’ve never seen an England fan wear a club shirt to an England game.

A humdrum sports-entertainment atmosphere for what was expected to be a humdrum game. Yet in trying to describe what actually took place ... “It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream – making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams ...”

Don’t expect glamorous football, Thomas Tuchel had told the media before the game. His point was essentially that England would play their best football against the best teams, rather than low-block spoilers like Ghana and DRC.

The fact is that those teams that can play well generally do, as teams like France, Norway and Argentina have been showing. Those who can’t often blame their opponents for defending too much.

What a coach is really saying when he complains about low blocks is that his team can really only counterattack, and opponents aren’t giving them opportunities to do so.

The consensus from the England staff was that DRC would present a challenge very much like that of Ghana, who held England at bay with 90 minutes of low-block defending.

So it was very bad news indeed when DRC took the lead after seven minutes.

There was no apparent danger when Mbemba received the ball just inside England’s half: all the England players were between him and the goal. But his sudden diagonal switch to the left caught England by surprise – the centre backs were anticipating him to go right, right back Djed Spence, dropping deeper than his defensive partners, got caught under the ball, while Noni Madueke hadn’t tracked back.

The ball fell to Almeria winger Brian Cipenga, who had no thought of playing it safe: his low effort tearing past Jordan Pickford on the near side.

Jude Bellingham was booked for an ugly lunge as England struggled to re-establish themselves in the game. Congo were not playing exactly like Ghana – they came forward when they had the ball, and a couple of times gave England counter-attacking chances with sloppy passes into midfield. But Bellingham, when presented with one such opportunity, lofted an attempted through-ball out of play. Then Rashford miscontrolled out of play.

The first-half hydration break was badly needed. It was actually England’s second tactical talk of the half – after they’d availed of an earlier injury stoppage to run to Tuchel and get some unauthorised instructions.

Tuchel pumped his arms, clapped his hands, and repeatedly made a palms towards ground motion that seemed to telling his players to “calm down”.

Two headers by Bellingham were saved by Lionel Mpasi: Bellingham actually congratulating him for the second save.

England looked to have a penalty just before half-time when Kane reached a through-ball before Mpasi and went somersaulting through the air.

On first sight it seemed a nailed-on penalty but the Jordanian referee disagreed and the replays suggested he might have got it right. Kane had already started the dive before the contact with the goalkeeper happened. A mistake by the England captain, who surely would have had a penalty if he’d played it fair.

In the very last action of the half, an England corner dropped to Kane at the back post and his bouncing volley caught Mpasi flush in the groin. The Congolese goalkeeper was on course to be the best performance by a player called Lionel at this World Cup.

Anthony Barry, in his regular half-time TV interview – an unexpected highlight of England’s World Cup campaign – suggested that conceding first might have been a good thing from a certain point of view for England, as it encouraged them to play without the handbrake. On the balance of play they would surely find an equaliser.

But in what we must now call the third quarter of the game, England’s momentum faded to nothing. The introductions of Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka for Marcus Rashford and Madueke did not spark anything. The last action of that period was Declan Rice spinning a big switch over to Saka, standing totally unmarked on the right touchline. Saka miscontrolled it out of play like Liam Rosenior in office shoes.

The last hydration break brought Tuchel’s last real chance to affect things. The earlier “relax guys, patience” message hadn’t worked. This time Tuchel screamed at his players, eyes bulging from his bony face, and smashed his fist repeatedly into his palm. England were going to hurl everything in a last desperate charge.

Eberechi Eze replaced Spence with Rice moving to right back, and these switches immediately paid off. Rice linked up with Eze, infiltrated the box, and though his cross to the back post was overhit, it dropped to Gordon. The now-Barcelona winger clipped it back into the centre towards Kane, who had for once escaped his markers. Mpasi got his hands to the header but couldn’t keep it out.

It so often happens that once the aura of invincibility is punctured, the end follows quickly. DRC had not looked as though they had the energy to attack for a while. The question was whether they could drag the game to penalties. But then Kane found that yard of space on his right foot.

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