England captain Harry Kane has offered an honest and analytical assessment of his side’s performance against Spain in the UEFA Nations League, asserting that the Three Lions held the upper hand and outplayed their opponents for significant periods of the match. Recall that the Three Lions lost 3-2 at home to world champions Spain in the Nations League on Saturday.
Despite facing one of international football’s most technically gifted squads, Kane in a chat with ITV, pointed out that England’s tactical execution caused major problems for La Roja, even if the final result didn’t fully reflect their spells of dominance on the pitch. “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, but having scored 39 of his 40 penalties for club and country in 2023, 2024 and 2025, he has now missed three of his 16 spot-kicks in all competitions so far in 2026.