Harry Kane enjoyed a “pretty much perfect” night as England’s captain marked his 100th cap by scoring a brilliant brace in the Nations League victory against Finland.
The nation’s all-time top scorer became just the 10th Englishman, and first since Wayne Rooney a decade ago, to reach a century of senior international caps on Tuesday evening.
Kane was presented with a golden cap before kick-off and donned golden boots on a special night he marked with a fantastic second-half double in a 2-0 win.
The 31-year-old rifled his first off the underside of the bar and then scored a fine first-time effort, but there was to be no hat-trick as interim manager Lee Carsley withdrew the striker.
“It was almost a perfect night,” Kane said after extending his England record to 68 goals.
“As a striker of course on my 100th cap I wanted to score a goal and make the night as memorable as possible and to win the game as well.
“So, to score a couple of good goals, a couple of nice finishes and help the team win 2-0 was pretty much perfect.
“A proud night for me and the family and now we can enjoy it.”
Asked if he wanted the hat-trick, Kane – who had a first-half header disallowed for offside – said after a short pause: “I mean, I had enough shots to get the hat-trick, but Lee spoke about managing some minutes with a lot of games coming up.”
Kane returns to Bayern Munich buoyed by Tuesday’s memorable milestone and driven to reach even greater heights for club and country, with Peter Shilton’s 125-cap England record edging closer.
“I mentioned yesterday about from an early age can you keep focused and motivated,” the long-serving England skipper said.
“I think nowadays as footballer you’re going to get criticism, you’re going to have people talk about you as a player.
“I’ve always spoken about when things are not going your way, trying to use that to motivate you, bring an energy, a motivation and a hunger inside of you to perform.
“And not just to prove other people wrong but to prove to yourself that you can keep maintaining this level and keep pushing. That’s what I talk about.
“There will be a time – I’m not sure when – that the level will drop and you won’t quite feel the same but while I feel like I do, I want to keep pushing the boundaries.
“I think I showed that out there tonight and come October I’ll be ready to go again.”
It was a special night for England skipper Kane, who interim boss Carsley has been full of praise for during his first camp in charge of the senior team.
“It’s brilliant that he’s got 100 caps tonight and then to score the two goals, and the way that he took the goals, was outstanding,” he said.
“Not surprising. To see him in the short space of time that we’ve worked with, the standards that he’s got, the level is that he produces every single day, on and off the pitch.
“Hopefully he’ll get all the plaudits tonight. We’re very lucky to have him.”
Carsley’s side have, as expected, won both of their Group B2 matches, following up their 2-0 triumph away to the Republic of Ireland with a win by the same scoreline against Finland.
Tuesday’s opponents sit bottom of the pool after losing both of their Nations League opener, but head coach Markku Kanerva was proud of his side’s efforts at Wembley.
“Disappointed after losing 2-0,” he said. “But we knew it was going to be a tough task playing against a world-class team like England.
“I’m proud of how my players fought today. Second half, England forced us to defend pretty well.
“Of course, disappointed with how they scored goals but England was much better than us, which was expected in a way. But I think we did everything we could.”