England captain Harry Kane has assessed his team’s performance against Spain, maintaining that the Three Lions matched and outplayed the reigning world champions for extended periods.
England suffered a 3-2 home defeat to Spain in the UEFA Nations League on Saturday.
Despite facing one of international football’s most technically accomplished teams, Kane, speaking to ITV, said England’s tactical approach created significant problems for Spain, although the final score did not fully reflect their performance.
“We reached good levels in the World Cup, but didn’t quite put a full 90 minutes together. Probably similar again today,” Kane told ITV.
“We had a lot of good moments, so I think that period (either side of half-time) was as good as we’ve played in a long, long time and that’s the standard that we know we can reach.
“We’re playing against the reigning world champions, European champions. We went toe-to-toe and on another day, for sure, we would win that game.”
Kane has scored 17 goals in 19 appearances for England under Thomas Tuchel.
However, after converting 39 of his 40 penalties for club and country across 2023, 2024 and 2025, the striker has now missed three of his 16 spot-kicks in all competitions in 2026.