Kane expects England improvement for France friendly

(Reuters) – Striker Harry Kane says there is no reason to press the panic button ahead of Tuesday’s international against France and is confident England can redeem themselves after a lacklustre performance in the 2-0 friendly loss to Spain.

The European champions had more than 60 percent of possession during Friday’s game in Alicante and goals from Mario Gaspar and Santi Cazorla in the final 20 minutes were enough to end England’s 15-match unbeaten run.

Kane, who has scored five goals in his last three Premier League games for Tottenham Hotspur, remains optimistic ahead of the Euro 2016 tournament in France next year and has urged supporters to retain belief in the side.

“People need to stay patient. We’re not going to win every game. We’re playing these teams for a reason, to get experience. We’ve got to stay confident,” Kane was quoted as saying by the British media.

“We know what we want to do and what we want to achieve. We’ve got another tough test against France (on Tuesday), which we want to win. We’ve got to keep doing things right, don’t panic and go from there.”

Meanwhile, defender Ryan Bertrand is focused on cementing his spot in the 23-man squad Roy Hodgson takes to next year’s tournament.

“You can’t take anything for granted, really. You need to still work, nothing is a given,” Bertrand said.

“I just want to continue and concentrate on each game, each friendly game.”

“We’ve got big tests coming again on Tuesday and again with the following friendlies coming up. It is important that we keep consistent as a team, in my performances too,” he added.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by John O’Brien)