LONDON: England manager Roy Hodgson backed Harry Kane to enjoy a long and distinguished international career after the Tottenham Hotspur striker marked his debut with a goal after only 80 seconds.
With Kane having scored 29 goals for Spurs this season, there was huge expectation about his England bow and the 21-year-old duly delivered, rising from the bench to score the fourth goal of a one-sided 4-0 win over Lithuania in Friday's Euro 2016 qualifier at Wembley.
Kane will now hope to start in Tuesday's friendly against Italy in Turin and Hodgson said that he had no qualms about the striker's ability to handle the increased attention that his goal is certain to generate.
"I think he'll put pressure on himself because he's a good professional," Hodgson told his post-match press conference.
"I don't think he's a person who'll buckle under pressure, but he'll have to accept the media spotlight, which is already enormous, will get bigger.
"But he's in good hands with (manager) Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham and us here. We'll make sure we don't built him up to knock him down, but build him up to be a big part of our future.
"He is still a young man, but what could be better than making his debut and scoring a goal? Wayne Rooney did it and never looked back."
Rooney opened the scoring against Lithuania in the sixth minute by heading in after Danny Welbeck's shot was parried by goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis.
It took the Manchester United striker to 47 England goals -- two shy of Bobby Charlton's all-time record.
Man-of-the-match Welbeck made it 2-0 with a header that deflected in off Tadas Kijanskas and Rooney then teed up Raheem Sterling to tap in his first England goal in the 58th minute.
Comments
Comments are closed.