England captain Harry Kane has hailed Jude Bellingham‘s added-time bicycle kick against Slovakia as one of the best in the country’s history.
Bellingham’s 95th minute goal rescued a dire England, who trailed Slovakia for the majority of the round-of-16 tie, and forced the game into extra-time.
Kane scored the winner for England in the 91st minute, and Gareth Southgate’s side held on to setup a quarterfinal clash against Switzerland next Saturday.
“That’s the desire and attitude from the boys and everyone involved. It looked tough for a second there but you keep going,” Kane said in a post-match interview.
“We worked on so many details around the week. We worked on a long throw a couple days ago and said we might need it. We had to ready for everything.
“That’s what Jude does. It was an unbelievable goal. One of the best in our country’s history I reckon.
“What a player he is. He works so hard for the team. There has been a lot of talk about him the last couple of days and it shows what he can do. In big moments he steps up, and that’s what we needed.
“We know we will do whatever it takes. If we have a game like this in the quarterfinal then so be it. We had to dig deep, and that’s exactly what we did today. We could have done better, could have played better. But ultimately it’s a results business and that’s what we care about. So we can enjoy tonight and hopefully take that momentum into the rest of the tournament.”