England came from behind to beat Italy 3-1 and secure their place at the 2024 European Championship.
In a rematch of the Euro 2020 final, Gianluca Scamacca opened the scoring for the visitors, but England bounced back and levelled before half-time through a Harry Kane penalty.
Jude Bellingham was outstanding for the Three Lions and having won the penalty for the equaliser, charged forward to set up Marcus Rashford to score England’s second. A brilliant individual goal from Kane sealed the win late on and confirmed England’s place at next summer’s finals.
Kane – whose brace took him to 61 goals for England – insists major tournament qualification is ‘not as easy as it looks’ and said he was delighted that the Three Lions clinched their Euro 2024 place with games to spare.
“Qualifying is never easy. Sometimes we are just expected to go to the big tournaments but we have seen in the past it is not as easy as it looks,” Kane told Channel 4.
“We went 1-0 behind and stayed calm. We knew we could get the winner and we have done it.”
Kane is now England’s record scorer at Wembley and admitted he loves scoring goals at the national stadium.
“I do! It is our home. We have made it a real fortress over the years. We want to repay our fans with victories and we have done that today.
“I showed a bit of pace (for the second goal) which is not normally my strength. To qualify with two games to go, credit to everyone involved.”
England are confirmed as Group C winners, ahead of November’s final qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia.
