{"id":3528,"date":"2026-07-05T22:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3528"},"modified":"2026-07-05T22:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:00:23","slug":"kane-rescues-england-from-congo-calamity-to-reach-last-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3528","title":{"rendered":"Kane rescues England from Congo calamity to reach last 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harry Kane rescued England from a seismic World Cup shock with two late goals to beat the Democratic Republic of Congo 2-1 in Atlanta and secure a place in the last 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aiming to end a 60-year wait to win a major tournament, Thomas Tuchel&#8217;s men escaped humiliation and one of England&#8217;s worst ever World Cup exits thanks to their talismanic captain after Brian Cipenga&#8217;s early goal gave Congo an early lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Olamide - Billionaires Club (Official Video) ft. Wizkid, Darkoo\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Uc8MCfbjcnE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Three Lions will need to improve for the daunting task of facing co-hosts Mexico at the Estadio Azteca in the last 16 on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Already England&#8217;s all-time top goalscorer in the competition, Kane now has 13 World Cup goals and moves onto five for the tournament to remain in the the star-studded battle for the Golden Boot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;What a crazy game, obviously,&#8221; said Kane. &#8220;I think you have to stay patient in these games. &#8220;Their keeper definitely made some unbelievable saves in that first half. And it was just about pounding the rock, keep pounding the rock, and our moments will come.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defeat ended Congo&#8217;s fairytale run on their return to the World Cup for the first time in 52 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Leopards had never even won a point or scored a goal at the World Cup until a few weeks ago, but had one of the tournament favorites teetering on the brink of elimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tuchel made two changes from victory over Panama as Declan Rice return in midfield, while Djed Spence came in at right-back with Reece James and Jarell Quansah both ruled out through injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The German coach&#8217;s decision not to select more specialist right-back cover in a 26-man squad will face more scrutiny after Congo took the lead down that flank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spence was caught under Chancel Mbemba&#8217;s cross as the ball fell for Cipenga. The Almeria winger&#8217;s shot was low and hard but Jordan Pickford should still have kept it out at his near post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vast majority of the nearly 70,000 crowd decked out in England red and white were silenced, while Tuchel&#8217;s players were visibly rattled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jude Bellingham was shown a yellow card for a lunge lunge and was then involved in a heated exchange with his coach during the mid-half hydration break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stoppage in play at least allowed Tuchel the chance to restore order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bellingham&#8217;s powerful header from Declan Rice&#8217;s cross finally forced DR Congo &#8216;keeper Lionel Mpasi into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moments later Marcus Rashford&#8217;s powerful effort was blocked on the line by London-born Aaron Wan Bissaka after Noni Madueke&#8217;s jinking run opened up the Congo defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet it could have been even worse for England at the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yoane Wissa&#8217;s three goals in the group stage fired his country to the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time and the Newcastle striker had a golden chance to double the DR Congo lead but hit the outside of the post from point-blank range. <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/2026-fifa-world-cup\/kane-rescues-england-from-dr-congo-calamity-to-reach-world-cup-last-16\">(JapanToday)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harry Kane rescued England from a seismic World Cup shock with two late goals to beat the Democratic Republic of Congo 2-1 in Atlanta and secure a place in the last 16. Aiming to end a 60-year wait to win a major tournament, Thomas Tuchel&#8217;s men escaped humiliation and one of England&#8217;s worst ever World [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[419,3613,2791,3614,194,222,2866,340],"class_list":["post-3528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-brian-cipenga","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-djed-spence","tag-england","tag-harry-kane","tag-jude-bellingham","tag-thomas-tuchel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kane rescues England from Congo calamity to reach last 16 - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harry Kane rescued England from a seismic World Cup shock with two late goals to beat the Democratic Republic of Co\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3528\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kane rescues England from Congo calamity to reach last 16 - 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