Euro 2024: Harry Kane tells Lineker to back England, not criticise

England captain Harry Kane has responded to Gary Lineker’s criticism after their dismal show in a 1-1 draw against Denmark in the ongoing Euro 2024. The Three Lions registered a 1-0 win against Serbia in their opening match of the tournament but they could not bring their best against the Danes.

Kane scored in the 18th minute against Denmark but Morten Hjulmand equalized after 16 minutes with a thundering strike. 

Meanwhile, former England international Gary Lineker had called the team’s performance against Denmark as s***.

“Building the lads up with confidence would have been a better way to go about it,” Kane said at an England news conference on Sunday.

“The bottom line is we haven’t won [any tournaments] as a nation for a long, long time and a lot of these [ex-players who are criticising] were a part of that [failure] as well.

“They know how tough it is. I would never disrespect any ex-player, what I’d say is just remember what it was like to wear the shirt and that their words are listened to.

“We all want to win a major tournament, I’m sure they want us to win a major tournament, being as helpful as they can would be a better way to go about it.”

The England skipper revealed he has a good relationship with his players but admitted they haven’t yet played up to their potential. 

“I have a good relationship with all of them [Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka], we just haven’t done well enough in the two games to show it yet,” he said.

England was also booed by their fans against Denmark but Kane urged the supporters to stay calm and keep backing their team.

“During the tournament just support us and then after the tournament you can judge us,” Kane said. “During it [the tournament] it’s down to us as players to get it right, of course people will have their opinion but ultimately its us who makes the decisions and finds solutions.

“A lot of people talking about what we haven’t done well but what we have done well is defending, we are calm, we have been here before.”

England are top of Group C with four points and will face Slovenia in their final group game on Tuesday in Cologne.