England survived a difficult and unexpected thriller, coming from behind to beat Congo 2-1 in dramatic fashion in the round of 32 and advance to the last 16 of the 2026 World Cup, where it will face Mexico. Above all stood Harry Kane, who scored a priceless brace and wrote an important chapter in English soccer history.
Kane, who arrived at the World Cup after a record-breaking season with Bayern Munich, during which he won the Golden Shoe as the top scorer in European soccer after scoring 61 goals and adding seven assists in 51 appearances for the German champion, carried his sensational form into the national team as well.
Harry Kane matches Gary Lineker's achievement
The English striker, who will celebrate his 33rd birthday at the end of the month, raised his World Cup tally to five goals in four matches and reignited the race for the tournament's Golden Boot. He now has the same number of goals as Erling Haaland, and just one fewer than Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
In addition, Kane's dramatic brace made English history, as it was the first by an England player in a World Cup knockout match since Gary Lineker scored twice in a 3-2 win over Cameroon in the quarterfinals of the 1990 World Cup, when England, incidentally, also needed extra time.
Incidentally, looking further back shows that Kane is now only one of three English players in history to have scored more than once in a single World Cup knockout match. Apart from him and Lineker, the third Englishman to do so was the legendary Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat trick in a 4-2 win over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final.
Level with Just Fontaine
Kane also climbed to sixth place on the all-time World Cup scoring list, raising his tally to 13 goals and drawing level with France's Just Fontaine. He is now one goal behind Gerd Muller, two behind Brazil's Ronaldo and six behind Lionel Messi, the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history.
