The English leaned into Kane. You let a teenage hero kick the last penalty, they write

Once again, England failed to win a gold medal at a major tournament, falling to Italy in a penalty shootout. The main culprits, according to English fans, are two, Gareth Southgate due to an unlucky substitution from the end of extra time and Harry Kane, who as captain did not take responsibility.

England had an ideal start to the final, leading from the second minute, but in the second half they made the game unnecessarily difficult for themselves with passive play and after Leonardo Bonucci’s goal and a boring extra time they were faced with their first penalty of the tournament.

The Italians had the advantage of having already had experience with the shootout. In the semi-finals they had knocked out the Spaniards, whose side had failed to score with Dani Olmo and Alvaro Morata.

Captain Georgio Chiellini again won the toss to choose who would start and chose his Italy for the second time. And once again it was a lucky choice. Italy’s goal scorers were quiet on their penalties and it showed.

On the England side, only the experienced Harry Kane and Harry Maguire converted penalties. On the other hand, youngsters Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka failed. Moreover, Rashford and Sancho came on just two minutes before the end of extra time.

Harry Kane took a lot of criticism from the English fans. As the captain and the team’s top scorer, he took the first penalty and scored it, but the main scoring stars usually take the responsibility and come last.

That is what Kane is being accused of, letting the decisive fifth penalty be kicked by the 19-year-old Saku. Most of the opinions are in line with that of user John, who wrote on Facebook. “Kane, you’re a hero. You proudly kick the first penalty and leave the deciding penalty to a teenager.”

Source: Facebook