Bellingham calls Kane England’s greatest after record-equalling cap

Jude Bellingham described Harry Kane as England’s greatest player after the captain matched Peter Shilton’s record of 125 appearances and scored twice in a 3-0 Nations League victory over the Czech Republic at Wembley.

Kane’s goals took his England total to 91, while he also helped create the opener, with his cross turned into the Czech Republic net by Vladimir Coufal.

“First and foremost he is an unbelievable human being, as a captain and a man,” Bellingham told ITV.

“He is the best England player to ever wear the shirt and it is an honour to play with him. He is pretty unmatched. He is scoring goals for fun, he goes deep and he gets tackles in. He is only getting better.”

England manager Thomas Tuchel praised Kane’s consistency, saying: “It’s what he does. I don’t take it for granted, it’s just exceptional every single match.”

The milestone came at the stadium where Kane began his international career more than 11 years ago. He scored 79 seconds after coming off the bench on his debut against Lithuania in a 2015 European Championship qualifier.

“It’s always special, even just walking out now and seeing the stadium, just the excitement of what’s to come,” Kane said before kick-off. “I try and never take it for granted. It’s obviously a special night tonight, but as always, we’ve got to focus on the job.”

The 33-year-old, who also hit the crossbar, has surpassed Wayne Rooney as England’s leading scorer and most-capped outfield player. He also broke Gary Lineker’s men’s World Cup scoring record this past summer, reaching 10 goals with a double against Croatia before moving clear with a goal against Panama. He finished the tournament with 14 World Cup goals.

Kane holds England records for major tournament appearances, with 36, major tournament goals, with 21, major tournament matches as captain, with 32, and goals at Wembley, with 31. He is now nine goals short of 100, a mark reached by only Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Iran’s Ali Daei.

Shilton, whose record had stood since 1990, congratulated Kane on X.

“You will go on and beat [the record] in November, I’m sure of that, and maybe go on and set a record that will never be beaten,” he said. “Because you’re still going strong, Harry, still playing well and scoring goals, and I know how much dedication and hard work you’ve actually put into achieving this.”

England took the lead after 27 minutes when Coufal diverted Kane’s cross into his own net. Just before half-time, Elliot Anderson’s long pass found Morgan Rogers, whose first-time cross allowed Kane to finish clinically.

Kane completed his double in the 57th minute, heading Lewis Hall’s corner in at the back post for his 91st international goal.

Tuchel secured his 20th win in 26 matches, the quickest any England manager has reached that total. “I think we played a very good match, very fluid and, to put it into context, it’s the fourth match in 11 or 12 days and I think we dominated through the whole match,” he told ITV. “Very focused, created some good opportunities, got some beautiful goals and, yeah, subs were strong. So a very good performance again and a deserved win.”

Elsewhere, world champions Spain beat Croatia 2-1 in Split, with Mikel Merino scoring twice to extend their unbeaten run to 42 matches and send them into the Nations League quarter-finals.

Ivan Perisic put Croatia ahead in the 17th minute, but Merino equalised in the 61st. Perisic was sent off for a second booking in the 79th minute before Merino completed Spain’s comeback 10 minutes later.

“I would spend the entire press conference thanking my players,” said Spain manager Luis de la Fuente, who started five Barcelona players. “We knew that the match was going to get like this, but we’ve managed to understand it very well. We haven’t dropped our arms.”

Spain lead the group with 12 points, England have nine, Croatia three and the Czech Republic remain without a point.

Slovenia beat Scotland 2-1 through second-half goals from Aljosa Matko and Danijel Sturm after Ryan Christie had opened the scoring in the 31st minute. Switzerland beat North Macedonia 3-0, with Fabian Rieder, Johan Manzambi and Dan Ndoye scoring.

Switzerland have 12 points in League B1, Slovenia seven, Scotland four and North Macedonia none. The final two group-stage rounds will be played during the November international break, with the eight teams finishing in the top two of the four League A groups advancing to knockout rounds beginning in March.