Harry Kane sends clear warning to Argentina ahead of 'battle' against Messi
Harry Kane has said that England accept they'll need to do better in their semi final tie against Argentina, and are having an 'extremely successful era'.
The two countries will play against each other on Wednesday (15 July) to decide which of them will reach the World Cup final and which will go into the third place playoff game nobody's that bothered about.
There's been a long rivalry between England and Argentina, but the last time they played against each other was 2005 and the last competitive game was during the 2002 World Cup.
It's been so long that Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has never played against England in his lengthy career, but Kane is warning Argentina that they will face an England team that have a lot going for them.
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Kane said: “It’s been an extremely successful era of our national team. Of course, we want to get over the line. That is the missing piece now.
“We’re knocking on the door. We’re getting to these semi-finals and finals. It’s a big week. We’ve got eight days left on this tournament.
“We’ve been together six weeks and shown every bit of desire for the badge and we’re going to need an even bigger push now for the last week or so.
“Ultimately we are in a semi-final of the World Cup and that has not always been the case for this national team so we have to enjoy it.”
Argentina, who won the 2022 World Cup, have had what looks on paper to be an easier run-in to the semi finals than the other teams as they've not played a team ranked above 19th in the world.
Four years on, and with Messi four years older, it'll be the expected toughest test thus far in the competition for both teams due to the quality of their opponent and the toll the tournament is taking on tired legs.
Both England and Argentina needed extra time to overcome their quarter final opponents, and Three Lions manager Thomas Tuchel said he wanted to see a better performance from his players in the next game.
Kane thinks the best is yet to come from England, saying the players knew there was 'another level that we can reach' and the manager was trying to 'drag it out of us'.
He said: "We haven’t seen that yet, we’ve shown it in glimpses. Against Norway it was in glimpses.
“But we haven’t had full control that we would like and I feel we can have. But at this stage of the tournament you are playing against the best teams in the world.
“We’ll be playing against one of the best teams in the world in the semi-final, so the most pleasing thing is that we are in a semi-final and we can still feel like we can improve.
“But I don’t think it is something to get really over the top about. We are showing a lot of good things.”
If England win the World Cup, do we get a bank holiday?
Now that the Three Lions have made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup, thoughts have turned to the possibility that football really could be coming home - and what better way to celebrate England’s success than a day off work?
Outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously hinted at the prospect of a bank holiday if Thomas Tuchel’s side win the tournament.
“On the question of a bank holiday, I think I don't want to jinx it, but ask me again if we get to the final,” he told reporters at a Nato conference on 8 July.
With the final taking place on Sunday (19 July), it’s believed that the celebratory bank holiday would likely fall on the following Friday (24 July).
Only time will tell!
Topics: World Cup, Harry Kane, Football, Sport
Joe Harker