England players had more to cope with than some aggressive Tunisia defending, as captain and match-winner Harry Kane revealed.
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Kane headed a 91st-minute winner to follow his opening goal as Gareth Southgate’s side edged to a 2-1 Group G success in Volgograd.
Much of the pre-match attention had been on the large increase in temperatures expected at the stadium, compared to England’s base in Repino.
And Kane confirmed England players had found it tough to cope with certain aspects of the atmosphere despite his own personal heroics.
Asked about the flies in Volgograd, man of the match Kane said: ‘There were a lot more than we thought.
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‘We got told before that there was going to be a lot of flies and when we went out for the warm-up there were more than we thought. We had a lot of bug spray on and that was important.
‘We had some of them in our eyes and some of them in our mouth. It’s just part of dealing with whatever comes your way and the team coped with it well.’
Moscow shops have been selling Russian dolls branded with Kane’s image, but the Tottenham forward joked he is unimpressed with his likeness on the merchandise.
‘I’ll have to get myself one of those Russian dolls,’ he said.
‘I’ve seen a couple of them and they make me look a bit chubby if I’m totally honest with you.’
