Naples, March 23 (BNA): Harry Kane became England’s record international scorer as his team began their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a 2-1 win over defending champions Italy in Group C on Thursday.
Reuters reported that the England captain fired a penalty past Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma shortly before half-time to make it 2-0 after Declan Rice opened the scoring after 13 minutes.
Newcomer Matteo Retigui halved the deficit in the 56th minute as the hosts dominated the second half but England achieved their first victory over Italy on Italian soil for 62 years despite Luke Shaw being sent off for two yellow cards.
It was the perfect response from England after suffering a World Cup quarter-final defeat by France in December when Kane missed a crucial penalty.
This time he made no mistake after Giovanni Di Lorenzo was penalized for handball in the 42nd minute, finding a corner kick to take his England tally to 54, one more than Wayne Rooney.
Kane was also involved in England’s opener as his blocked shot fell to Rice to convert silencing the majority of the fans inside Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Italy, who beat England on penalties to win Euro 2020 at Wembley but failed to qualify for the World Cup, were much more dangerous in the second half after Argentine-born Retegui fired a low shot past Jordan Pickford.
England sank deeper and deeper as they appeared to be running out of legs but Italy struggled to create clear chances and suffered their first European Championship qualifying defeat in 41 matches.
It was England’s first competitive victory over Italy since 1977 and meant Gareth Southgate has now reached 50 wins as national coach since taking over in 2016.
But the night belonged to Kane.
“It means everything,” said Kane. “I’m so excited to be back there and give back the England shirt. Of course it had to be a penalty. Once you hit the net, there was a lot of emotion. Thank you so much to the players, the staff and the fans.”
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