November 13, 2026
The captain of the English national team, Harry Kane, sent a clear message of challenge to the Spanish national team on the eve of the expected confrontation between them on Sunday, stressing his team’s aspiration to seize the top spot in Group C in the European Nations League, and to exploit the next match to restore standing and prove capabilities after Spanish dominance in the first leg.
Kane’s statements came after the valuable victory achieved by the England team over its Croatian counterpart, 2-1, on Thursday, at Wembley Stadium in the fifth round. The match saw Morgan Rogers open the scoring for England, before Petar Susic equalized for Croatia, and Kane later sealed the victory by scoring the winning goal from a penalty kick.
Kane explained that the main goal is to finish the group stage in first place, pointing out that the players realized after the loss to Spain in the first match that they were capable of performing at better levels, and they agreed to obtain the full score in the subsequent matches, leading up to Sunday’s confrontation.
In statements reported by the Spanish newspaper “Marca”, Kane said: “After the first match, when we lost to them here, we knew that we were capable of performing much better. We told ourselves that we would win all the matches until the next confrontation, and then see what happens. And now, Sunday, we have the perfect opportunity to show what we are capable of.”
He added that the victory over Croatia gives his team a morale boost to play a big match in Madrid, while acknowledging the necessity of improving some technical aspects if the team wants to achieve victory over the Spanish El Matador.
This summit will be held at a time when the English team qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating Croatia, while the Spanish team continued its positive results by defeating the Czech Republic with two clean goals, maintaining the lead in the group.
The Spanish team leads the group standings with 15 points, achieving the full score from five wins, three points ahead of the English team, the runner-up, with 12 points, which makes winning in Madrid the only option for England to equal its rival’s score and seize the lead.
