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Harry Kane insisted England should be proud of their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign despite a flat end to the year with a 1-1 draw in North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
England topped their group, finishing six points ahead of Italy, to book their place in Germany with two games to spare.<\/p>\n
Kane told Channel 4: \u201cDifficult game, we knew it would be and it was tough against a decent side playing on a pitch that is difficult to play our style of football on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went 1-0 behind against the run of play with a soft penalty. It was good to get on the pitch. It was important for us to get a goal back and a shame we couldn\u2019t get a second.\u201d<\/p>\n
England equalised seconds after Kane came on as a substitute and pressured Jani Atanasov into scoring an own goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure it was an own goal,\u201d he added. \u201cIf anyone was going to get a second it was us. We can be really proud of how the qualifying campaign has gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyle Walker captained England from the start, with Manchester City team-mate Rico Lewis making his debut a day before his 19th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think after the qualifying we\u2019ve had it was always going to be tough here but we dug in and got a point,\u201d Walker told Channel 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s football. It\u2019s been a\u00a0short week, two games when we\u2019ve already qualified. It\u2019s no excuses, we know we should be taking three points from here but it\u2019s something to work on for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis was harshly penalised for the penalty which led to North Macedonia\u2019s opening goal. Enis Bardhi saw his spot-kick saved by Jordan Pickford but was first to the rebound to lash his side ahead<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man to my right has probably received an unfair decision there,\u201d added Walker. \u201cHe deserves this cap and happy birthday for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis said: \u201cOverall I\u2019m very happy \u2013 not with the decision that went against me \u2013 but I couldn\u2019t have dreamed of anything better. I\u2019m not really focused on any tournaments, just on myself and what I can do to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boss Gareth Southgate thought the penalty decision against Lewis was \u201creally harsh\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was excellent,\u201d Southgate told Channel 4. \u201cHis composure with the ball and the way he responded to that really harsh setback, he\u2019s a super footballer and he was excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not the end to the qualifying campaign Southgate wanted, but he added: \u201cThe really big results were in March against Italy and Ukraine. It meant coming here tonight was a completely different test.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that given we had already qualified and everything had been achieved the mentality of the players was excellent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality on the ball was good on a difficult pitch. Just that final pass or finish was difficult to find. But I thought there were lots of positive performances.\u201d<\/p>\n