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Harry Kane’s penalty miss in England’s World Cup defeat to France may have been influenced by the long VAR check, according to Jurgen Klinsmann, who feels there is “more to come” from the Three Lions.
England suffered an agonising quarter-final defeat to the reigning champions on Saturday, as Kane blazed an 84th-minute spot-kick over the crossbar after scoring an earlier penalty.
Referee Wilton Sampaio – who was criticised by some England players after the game – was initially unmoved by Theo Hernandez’s push on Mason Mount, only awarding England’s second penalty after a long VAR review.
Speaking in his role as part of FIFA’s Technical Study Group on Monday, former Tottenham forward Klinsmann blamed that wait for Kane’s costly error.
“From the time that he whistles for the penalty until the time he gets a chance to actually execute the penalty, there’s far, far too much time passing by, and it works into your brain,” Klinsmann said.
“I’m obviously a big Harry Kane fan and if Harry had the chance to just put the ball down and shoot, no big deal.
“But the whole VAR situation, double-checking whether it was a penalty… time goes by and by and by.
“Then you obviously start thinking and you get to a point where you don’t execute the penalty the way you would have done it right after the whistle.”
Kane’s miss ensured England suffered a record seventh World Cup quarter-final exit, but Klinsmann believes they remain on the right path despite several near misses under Gareth Southgate.
“I think, overall, it was a very positive presentation from the English side in this entire tournament,” the 1990 World Cup winner said.
“This game, France v England, came just too early. It should have been a semi-final or the final.
“But one team had to go home and unfortunately it was England, from an English perspective. But I think overall they played a very good tournament.
“It’s still a team in growth. I think this team is still able to get better over the next few years. They are, age-wise, not on the limit now by any means.
“They have a lot of talent coming through, getting better, getting more experienced. They have now had three very positive tournaments with the one in Russia [in 2018], obviously the Euros where they went to the final.
“Now I think this was a very positive tournament, even if it ended in the quarter-finals. There’s more to come from this England side, in my opinion.”
England were not the only team to suffer penalty heartache in Qatar, with pre-tournament favourites Brazil bowing out at the same stage courtesy of a shoot-out defeat against Croatia.
Brazil planned for star forward Neymar to take their fifth and final penalty, which never arrived after Rodrygo and Marquinhos failed to convert, and Klinsmann believes that was a mistake.
Asked for his thoughts on where the Selecao went wrong, Klinsmann said: “Put your best shooter first. Set the tone with your best penalty-taker.”
