Gareth Southgate shut down cheeky Harry Kane request in England win over Bosnia

Gareth Southgate gave Harry Kane half an hour against Bosnia (Picture: Getty Images)

Gareth Southgate turned down Harry Kane’s ‘audacious’ request to come off the bench to take England’s penalty against Bosnia-Herzegovina in their friendly win on Monday night.

The Three Lions won the first of two friendlies this week 3-0 thanks to goals from Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold and a late third from Kane.

England were awarded a penalty on the hour-mark with a string of substitutes already stripped and ready to come on, including Kane who was on the bench at the start of the match.

The manager revealed that the Bayern Munich striker asked for the substitution to be hurried through so he could get on the field and take the spot-kick, but he shut him down, allowing Palmer to convert from 12 yards.

‘He had the audacity to ask to come on and to score the penalty which was never going to happen,’ Southgate said of his captain. ‘The plan for him today was to have half an hour and then he will start on Friday [against Iceland].’

On the match, which was pretty turgid in the first half before England turned the screw after the break, Southgate said: ‘I thought the intensity of the game was good. We had players that needed minutes and we needed a competitive game.

Cole Palmer scored England’s opener from the penalty spot (Picture: Getty Images)

‘The opposition was dogged so we had to be patient and keep probing. We felt our quality would tell. There was some good individual performances and hopefully we have come through with no issues.’

Southgate has some big decisions to make in cutting down his 33-man provisional squad to 26 players on Friday after the match against Iceland at Wembley.

Palmer has strongly staked his claim to be in the final squad, as did Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze, who started and impressed on Monday night.

Eberechi Eze impressed for England against Bosnia (Picture: Getty Images)

‘I thought Cole linked the game well for us,’ said Southgate. ‘Lovely for him to get his first goal and then with Eze he was really pleased. He played with that freedom and swagger. It is great to see a young player come into this environment and do that.’

He added: ‘I thought they both played with the freedom.

‘Ebere has got lovely movement to go past players, he’s got power. A couple of times, Cole was being too precise and if he got his shots away earlier maybe he could’ve got a couple.’

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