Thomas Tuchel hails ‘brilliant, brilliant’ Harry Kane after landmark double

Thomas Tuchel says Harry Kane deserves all of the accolades after marking his record-equalling England appearance with a decisive display in the Nations League defeat of Czechia.

The skipper continued his wondrous form on Tuesday at Wembley, where he scored a brace having forced Vladimir Coufal into an own goal as he joined Peter Shilton on 125 caps.

Kane was given a standing ovation as he was taken off towards the end of a 3-0 victory that all but assured England of a place in the Nations League quarter-finals.

“Brilliant, brilliant,” boss Tuchel said. “I think the team performance was very good, and Harry’s performance was very good.

“He was again decisive for us and on this very special day for him, to equal the record of Peter Shilton, puts him on this kind of level.

“Amazing. He deserves the stage, he deserves the praise.”

Kane is set to move clear as England’s most-capped men’s player next month against Croatia, who Tuchel’s team thumped 7-0 in Rijeka on Saturday.

That swashbuckling win and 2-0 victory in Prague last week helped make amends for the helter-skelter 3-2 loss to Spain the Group A3 opener as they continue to move on from the World Cup.

Asked if he feels the side are a step further ahead than they were at the end of the summer, Tuchel said: “Yeah, of course, and that’s what we have to do.

“That is our goal, to constantly improve and develop. We have these experiences together, and we had a big tournament together.

“It was very positive and still it’s necessary to move forward and to improve, especially in sports and this is what we’re trying to do.

“We adjusted some details in our structure, and we didn’t compromise on the effort and the intensity and on the togetherness of the team.

“The players who were with us in the World Cup took care of these standards and of the culture within the team, off the pitch and on the pitch.

“I think that’s what you could see and you just could see the positive on a long camp is that you have time for debriefs, that you have time for meetings, you have more time for training, you spend more time.

“And together you can develop something because the common language sinks in, the patterns sink in, and, again like after a big victory in Croatia, we put in the things that we don’t want to compromise on.

“The intensity, the effort and we created a good momentum throughout the match, created chances, scored beautiful goals, so it was a very good camp overall.”