'Gutted' Harry Kane defends England after latest failure

Gareth Southgate's side lost 1-0 to Portugual and 3-1 to Italy with a 1-0 win over Sweden not enough to advance to the last four of the tournament in the Czech Republic.

Tottenham forward Kane has defended prepartions for the tournament despite the latest disappointment at the finals.

Kane partnered news Liverpool forward Danny Ings, but England could not emulate the spirit of a qualifying campaign that brought nine wins out of ten and 31 goals.

"We’re gutted as a team that we haven’t got there as a team,” Kane Kane told Sky Sports. “We played well early on and then two minutes in the first half has cost us.

“We couldn’t have prepared any better,” said Kane, who is too old for the U21s after this tournament.

“We all knew what we had to do and we were all looking forward to it.

“I don’t think we have let ourselves down at all. We tried to play the right way but things just haven’t gone for us.

“That’s tournament football we’ve got to learn to do better in them and start winning games – and learn how to cross the line even when we aren’t playing well, we did that against Sweden but (against Italy) it didn’t go well for us.

“It hurts but we are young players and we have to learn.

“With two goals in three games you can’t expect to go through against the top eight sides in Europe.”

At least Harry Kane appears to get the wisdom of appearing at such events for his development as an England player. Too many youngsters these days appear to arrive in the senior squad without serving their time for the U21s. It really is odd that Kane, the Premier League's young player of the year and one of the most coveted forwards in Europe with 31 goals last season, should be turning out for the England youngsters while Raheem Sterling, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ross Barkley were not with the squad. Kane could have done with their support to provide England with a greater chance of progressing at the tournament, and the stats suggest the Spurs forward did not fall down on effort.