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England told they ‘should have prepared different penalty taker’ due to Hugo Lloris issue | Football | Sport

Former England Lioness Eniola Aluko has claimed Gareth Southgate should have prepared a second, separate penalty taker because of Harry Kane’s relationship with France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris at club level at Tottenham. The ITV pundit believes the mind-games were ultimately too consuming for the Three Lions captain as he fluffed his lines while trying to outwit his Spurs team-mate.

Kane made no mistake from the spot to make it 1-1 after Bukayo Saka was fouled in the box. But the prolific frontman couldn’t find the net a second time around, smashing the ball high over the crossbar.

For that reason, Aluko has questioned whether England should have had a Plan B in place to ease the burden on Kane but there is no other man Southgate would have wanted over the spot-kick.

“I don’t think you can underestimate the Kane missed penalty against his [Tottenham] team-mate,” Aluko said.

“I think it got into his head. Maybe England should have planned, there are so many lessons when you lose but maybe England should have planned.

READ MORE: Gary Neville savages ‘rank bad, joke of a referee’ after England World Cup devastation

“Look for me, we win and lose as a team. We conceded two goals and missed a few chances,” he told ITV.

“He’s been incredible for us, so reliable in those situations. We wouldn’t be here but for the number of goals he’s scored for us.”

Jordan Henderson was of the same opinion, insisting Kane will come back stronger following the heartbreaking miss.

“We know how many penalties Harry has scored for us, how many goals he has contributed to even get us here,” Henderson said.

“He will be stronger for this in the future. He is a world-class striker and our captain, he will bounce back.”

France took the lead in the first half when Aurelien Tchouameni slammed home from range as Les Bleus went in at half-time 1-0 up.

But England rallied back and levelled things up through Kane’s brilliantly-dispatched spot-kick as the Three Lions grew with confidence.

Olivier Giroud then restored France’s lead with a fine header but still, England were not giving up as they went in search of a second equaliser.

Kane was then awarded a golden chance to tie things up when VAR intervened following Theo Hernandez’s rough challenge on Mason Mount.

In devastating fashion for both Kane and England, he could only smash the ball over the bar as France booked their place in the semi-finals where they will meet Morocco on Wednesday.

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