Kane calls DR Congo winner one of his favourite England goals after World Cup rescue act

Harry Kane has described his match-winning goal against DR Congo as one of his favourite England strikes, crediting the technical difficulty of the finish and the weight of the moment after his brace kept England’s World Cup campaign alive on Wednesday.

England were on the brink of elimination before Kane’s two goals turned the tie around. The captain’s second, a whipped finish into the front corner after a reverse pass from Anthony Gordon, was the one that lingered longest with him. “It was one of my favourite England goals for many different reasons,” Kane said. “But from a technical point of view, it was right up there as one of my best.”

Kane explained the split-second calculation behind the strike. “It would have been easy to go backwards and just keep the ball, but Anthony Gordon found a nice reverse pass there. In that moment, I’m just thinking, ‘how can I get a bit of space to get my shot off?’ Whenever I’m around the box, I know if I get it where I want it, I can make the keeper work. Once I saw that space and kind of got that ball rolling, I just had one thing in my mind — let’s just try and whip this into that front corner as hard as possible.”

The goals have pushed Kane past Gary Lineker’s England World Cup scoring record and beyond Pelé’s tally, leaving him with five in the tournament and firmly in contention for the Golden Boot alongside Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.

Beyond the individual milestones, Kane was keen to stress the collective significance of the win. In an unusual move, he drew the squad into an on-pitch huddle immediately after the final whistle — something he admitted he does not normally do in public. “I just felt that going back on the last game, the last group game, I felt that we didn’t really celebrate the moment well enough as a team,” he told the FA’s Lions’ Den show. “I think we take for granted, sometimes, what we achieve finishing top of the group. It was more just a reminder before we went over to the fans just to say, ‘look, let’s enjoy the moment. Let’s enjoy singing with the fans.’”

Kane also said he believes he is currently in the best form of his career, and suggested the DR Congo victory could serve as a turning point for England’s broader campaign as they move into the knockout rounds.