Picture Credit: Twitter
Amid a busy and action-packed football season, the international break often comes as a blessing in disguise for many. For players who are not enjoying a great season at club level, it gives an opportunity to them to show their class and potential. Something very similar happened with England's captain - Harry Kane - against Albania on Friday.
After enduring a tough 1-1 draw against Hungary couple of days back, England welcomed Albania at the iconic Wembley Stadium on Matchday 9 of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. Gareth Southgate was desperately hoping for a strong performance from his side and Harry Kane, who has not had a great season with Tottenham so far, rose to the occasion.
Kane scores three brilliant goals in first half
England started the evening on a positive note with Harry Maguire giving them an early lead. However, it was the Kane show that followed afterwards, much to the delight of everyone. The 28-year-old ended his scoring drought in the 18th minute when he headed the ball in the back of net off a Jordan Henderson cross.
It was Henderson himself who scored the next goal to give England a 3-0 lead. However, Kane wanted more! Few minutes later, the England captain showed some brilliant trickery inside the box and smothered the ball past the Albanian goalkeeper with a thunderous left-footed strike.
With two goals to his name, a hattrick was on the cards but Kane wanted to seal it with something special. Just at the stroke of half-time, Phil Foden took a corner which was slightly behind Kane but the striker produced a splendid bicycle kick to score a perfect hattrick (header, left-footed strike and right-footed strike).
Watch Kane's bicycle kick goal here:
I could have probably had six on another night: Harry Kane
The England captain was certainly delighted with his match-winning performance at Wembley. After the match, he said, "Whenever I get chances I feel I am going to score, and there were quite a few out there today. I could have probably had six on another night. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and let’s keep winning."
Even coach Gareth Southgate was full of praise for Kane following his hattrick. "I thought he (Kane) gave a brilliant centre-forward performance tonight. He held the ball up and brought other people into play. He competed and of course his finishing was outstanding. I thought his all-round game was excellent," Southgate said.