World Cup 2026: Why Harry Kane is different at this World Cup – Alan Shearer

It took Harry Kane four games and 269 minutes to even score a shot on target at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

He looked tired early in the tournament and I felt he needed a rest after England’s first two matches.

This time things couldn’t be more different; He will be at the top of the world by scoring two goals in the 4-2 victory against Croatia.

As a striker, the one thing you desperately want to do in any major tournament is to get off to a good start.

I was lucky enough to do that for England when we beat Tunisia in our first match of the 1998 World Cup.

Honestly, it was a huge relief to not only get the win for the team, but also to get on the scoresheet as captain and main goalscorer when everyone was expecting me to score.

I know Kane will feel exactly the same way after his performance on Wednesday, for the same reasons.

He had to sit with the rest of the England squad all week and watch all the other matches; It has seen superstars like France’s Kylian Mbappe, Norway’s Erling Haaland and Argentina’s Lionel Messi step up and run with not just one goal, but at least two.

Kane was absolutely desperate to join the party and get off target on his debut too, so to do it and get another after just 12 minutes is huge for him and for England.

Kane scored in the last 16 against Senegal in Qatar when he shot on target.

This time he nailed the feel-good factor from the very beginning, and we’ve already seen what he does when that happens; In Russia in 2018, Kane scored five goals in England’s first two matches, taking them to the Golden Boot and helping us reach the semi-finals.

With arguably our toughest match in Group L behind us, they must be beaming as Ghana and Panama are next in line.