Coming home at last?

For an England team that came to the World Cup with reducedexpectations, things are setting up nicely.

The younger, friendlier squad began with a 2-1 win overTunisia thanks to a double strike by captain Harry Kane.

England then hammered Panama 6-1 on Sunday, with Kanenotching a further three goals, to make it to the next stage of the tournament.

“Yeah fantastic, so proud of the boys we are just enjoyingit being here,” said Kane. “We know it’s going to be tough, they started prettywell but we’ve been working on set-pieces and we’ve been working on the way wewanted to play and it’s all coming together. It’s a brilliant result, obviouslyfantastic to be through and to do it in this way is brilliant.”

Kane is now only the third England player to score three ina game during the World Cup Finals, joining 1966 World Cup winner Geoff Hurstand 1986 striker Gary Lineker, now a TV football pundit, in the record books.The match was also England’s best ever result at this stage of the tournament.

It helps when you’ve got the ‘best striker’ at the World CupFinals, according to coach Gareth Southgate.

The player leads the Golden Boot scoring charts with fivegoals after Kane had spoken before the tournament about his desire to use it toshowcase his talents and Southgate believes his skipper is on the right track.

“Clearly the stage to do that is this one,” Southgate saidat the post-match press conference. “He’s there in the scoring charts. He’s upat the top. We wouldn’t swap him for anyone in the tournament in terms of No 9sbecause you know that, when he gets opportunities, he’ll bury them.

“Just as important is the way he presses, holds the ball up,contributes to the overall game and sacrifices himself for the team.”

The 24-year-old Tottenham Hotspur star said he was proud tobag a hat-trick and proud of his team. ‘Love this team. Proud of a first WorldCup hat-trick. We keep going’, he posted on social media alongside a groupphoto on the team bus.

Still, Kane may have been quick to play down any suggestionEngland could go all the way and win the trophy. “Yeah you have to believe, toachieve anything in life you have to believe,” he said. “But there is still along way to go, a lot of hard work. We have to stick together and keep to ourgame plan.”

English fans are accustomed to disappointment in football’sbiggest tournament, no matter how many talented Premier League players pull onthe shirt for the national team. The Three Lions were eliminated in the groupstage in Brazil four years ago and haven’t reached the World Cup semi-finalssince 1990.

Southgate turned the page on England’s dismal ‘goldengeneration’ in a bid to revitalise the squad. Nine players made their World Cupdebuts against Tunisia, and more than half the team is 25 or younger.

A match with mighty Belgium and gifted Manchester Unitedstriker Romelu Lukaku looms to conclude the group stage and who sits on top.

If they win that tomorrow, England’s fans may truly believethat football is finally coming home.