England made it through to the World Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday night by beating Colombia on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in 90 minutes and extra-time. England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford saved a Colombia penalty before Eric Dier scored the winning goal.
However, Tottenham and England’s star striker Harry Kane had earlier scored his sixth goal of the competition to give the Three Lions the lead, before Colombia defender Yerry Mina equalised in stoppage-time to force penalty kicks.
Kane headed into the World Cup as one of the most prolific forwards in European football. However, he was not one of the hot favourites to win the Golden Boot because of the doubts over England making the latter stages of the competition.
Gareth Southgate’s side now face Sweden in the last eight of the competition, in a game that could go either way. The Scandinavians are a well-drilled and solid outfit.
However, Kane does not seem to care who he faces. He has the confidence that he can score against any opposition. The England captain has personified confidence throughout World Cup 2018, leading his team from the front.
His main rivals for the individual award are seemingly the likes of Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku who has four goals, France’s Kylian Mbappe, Brazil’s Neymar and Edinson Cavani of Uruguay.
However, considering that two of those strikers will leave the competition, and the next highest scorer in Russia is Lukaku, this seems like a massive opportunity for Kane to win the prestigious award.
The Three Lions could easily suffer elimination against Sweden on Saturday, as Janne Andersson’s side have proven to be a superb team over the last year or so. They could just as easily go through to the semi-finals, though, as the current group of England players seem to have a good spirit.
Further England goes at World Cup 2018, the better chance the Spurs striker has of winning the award. The 24-year-old has now scored in every game he has played at Russia 2018. It would take a brave man to bet against the striker finding a way past Sweden on Saturday afternoon.