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Southgate: Captain Kane done good

Cape Town - England boss Gareth Southgate admits to being impressed with the qualities shown by Harry Kane as captain of the national team.

The Tottenham star has donned the armband on four occasions for his country - against Scotland, France, Slovenia and Lithuania - scoring in each of those games.

Southgate remains undecided on who will skipper the Three Lions at the World Cup in Russia next year, having asked goalkeeper Joe Hart, defender Gary Cahill, midfielder Jordan Henderson and striker Kane to fill the role since replacing Sam Allardyce at the helm.

The former England international acknowledged, however, that Kane has done his chances no harm after scoring winners against Slovenia and Lithuania, his goal at Wembley on Wednesday securing their passage to the finals next year.

"I think it's important that he is scoring and leading from the front," Southgate told ITV. "We need that leadership and he has certainly impressed me with everything he has done."

Southgate's side finished the qualifying campaign unbeaten in Group F, with Kane's 27th-minute penalty securing a narrow 1-0 win over Lithuania on Sunday.

Commenting on the manner of their victory in Vilnius, he said: "Put today into context; we made seven changes. That inevitably means that you will be disjointed at times.

"We haven't scored the number of goals we would have liked to but we gave three full debuts and wanted to try something. A bit more quality in the final third is what was missing.

"They had a packed defence, we were a fraction off. Running at people on that surface doesn't work, we needed one-twos and quick passes.

"It's a completely different challenge against Brazil and Germany (in friendlies) next month."

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