PARIS: England secured their place in the Nations League quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory over Croatia on Thursday, while Zinedine Zidane suffered his first defeat as France coach as his side lost away to Italy.
Harry Kane marked his recordbreaking 126th appearance for England by scoring the winning goal from the penalty spot at Wembley, taking his international tally to 92 goals.
The skipper, who showed off his Ballon d’Or trophy to the Wembley crowd before the match, described the occasion as ‘incredible’.
‘I was trying to play it cool, I was trying to not smile too much, not give away too much emotion,’ he said.
‘Obviously I try to stay focused on the job.’ Kane added: ‘I don’t know if any of this has sunk in, to be honest with you, maybe in the winter break when I’ve got a couple of weeks off.
‘I’ll be on the beach somewhere and we’ll try and reflect on everything that I’ve achieved, because these ones are probably the biggest in my career, without a doubt.
Morgan Rogers put England ahead in the first half before a mistake by Jarell Quansah allowed Petar Sucic to equalise for Croatia on the hour mark.
England regained the lead when Ivan Smolcic wrestled Quansah to the ground at a corner, with Kane converting the resulting penalty after a VAR review.
Thomas Tuchel’s side moved to 12 points from five matches in Group A3, ensuring they will go through to the quarter-finals next March.
‘Good win. We wanted this win desperately and I think we deserved it,’ Tuchel told ITV.
‘We got the job done and it was important because it was a special occasion for Harry and he scored the winner, so perfect evening.
Spain top the section on 15 points after a 2-0 win over the CzechRepublic in Prague, their fifth straight victory in the competition.
Alex Baena’s penalty and a late goal from Marc Pubill extended Spain’s unbeaten run in competitive matches to 44 and set up a showdown with England in Madrid on Sunday, which will decide the group winners.
The Czechs remain without a point and finished with 10 men after captain Ladislav Krejci was sent off.
‘I want to appreciate the work of the entire team,’ said Spain coach Luis de la Fuente. ‘It was a difficult game against an energetic team with an aggressive style. We had moments when it cost us a lot of energy to control the game.
ITALY TURN TABLES ON FRANCE Italy came from behind to beat France 3-l in Milan and hand Zidane his first defeat since taking charge of Les Bleus.
France were without Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele due to injury but Michael Olise pounced on a loose pass from Gianluigi Donnarum-ma to fire them ahead on 10 minutes.
Francesco Pio Esposito steered in Nicolo Cambiaghi’s pass to bring Italy level before France twice hit the post through Bradley Barcola and Rayan Cherki.
Sebastiano Esposito blazed a second-half penalty wide for Italy, but Roberto Mancini’s side did not rue that miss as Davide Frattesi powered home Federico Dimarco’s cut-back.
Francesco Pio Esposito then doubled his tally for the night, succeeding where his older brother had failed by converting a penalty after Dayot Upamecano fouled substitute Antonio Vergara.
Zidane put the loss down to ‘part of the learning process’.
‘You mustn’t change anything just because of a defeat,’ he said.
Italy climbed above France at the top of Group A1 on head-to-head record. Both teams have 10 points going into the final round of games, with Belgium just one point adrift.
Belgium host Italy on Sunday and France are at home to Turkiye.
Zidane said Mbappe could return for the game in Bordeaux.
‘I hope he’ll be available on Sunday. That was the plan, that’s what we want,’ he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Turkiye slid to a fifth straight loss as they went down 2-1 to Belgium in Izmir.
Arda Guler’s magnificent freekick put Turkiye ahead under new coach and former midfielder Sergen Yalcin, but Belgium struck twice in quick succession with goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Charles De Ketelaere to come away with victory.
In League C, Albania and Belarus both sealed 2-0 wins over Finland and San Marino, respectively.
Armenia and Cyprus drew 1-1, which combined with Montenegro’s 2-1 victory over Latvia, means the Balkan side have secured top spot in their group.-Agencies