Harry Kane scored twice inside the first 12 minutes of England’s World Cup opener against Croatia, a performance that Alan Shearer said showed the captain was ‘on top of the world’ after a slow start in Qatar four years ago. Kane’s first-half brace in the 4-2 victory put him among the early Golden Boot contenders alongside Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi, who all scored at least two goals in their opening matches. Shearer, the former England captain, said Kane had been ‘absolutely desperate to join the party’ after watching other superstars get off the mark.
At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Kane did not manage a single shot on target until England’s fourth game, against Senegal in the last 16, which took 269 minutes of play. ‘He looked tired early in that tournament,’ Shearer said. ‘I felt he needed a rest after England’s first two matches.’ This time, Shearer noted Kane scored after only 12 minutes and then added another, instantly giving him the feel-good factor that propelled him to the Golden Boot in 2018, when he scored five goals in England’s first two games and helped the team reach the semi-finals.
“Harry Kane scored twice in England's 4-2 win over Croatia, a stark contrast to his slow start at the 2022 World Cup.”
Shearer said that at Euro 2024 Kane was not 100% fit and the team struggled to get the best out of him because of the way they were set up. Now, under Thomas Tuchel, England are using Kane ‘a lot like Bayern Munich do’. Tuchel, who managed Kane at Bayern, ‘knows how to get the best out of him’, Shearer said. The striker’s peak condition this summer was evident, Shearer added.
With arguably England’s toughest group game out of the way, Kane’s next opponents are Ghana and Panama. ‘His eyes must be lighting up,’ Shearer said. For Kane, the early breakthrough has removed the weight of expectation he carried in Qatar, where he had to sit and watch other stars score while he waited. Now he has already matched his shot tally from the entire 2022 group stage – seven shots in one game compared to five in four games then – and the Golden Boot race is wide open.