Kane penalty miss as England lose 3-2 to Spain at Wembley in Nations League

England lost 3-2 to Spain at Wembley in the Nations League on 26 September 2026, with captain Harry Kane missing a second‑half penalty that struck the bar after he slipped and touched the ball twice. Head coach Thomas Tuchel had urged the squad to "embrace the chaos" as they began recovery from their World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina.

Tuchel had framed the fixture as a step in rehabilitation, but the match underlined contrasting approaches: "Spain do control, not chaos," the report said, noting they are reigning world and European champions. The article added Tuchel "learned the brutal lesson that chaos without control is a loser's strategy at elite level," and reminded readers England remain "a nearly team without a major men's success since the 1966 World Cup." Spain extended a long unbeaten run to 39 games.

The game turned early when Marc Guehi's turn allowed Lamine Yamal to open the scoring inside two minutes. Spain created further chances as Ferran Torres had a goal ruled out for offside, was denied by England goalkeeper James Trafford and later rolled an effort wide when clean through. England then capitalised on those reprieves to lead at half-time courtesy of Anthony Gordon's composed finish and a deflected header from Harry Kane.

Kane's second-half penalty was a pivotal moment; he hit the bar after slipping and touching the ball twice. Nico O'Reilly lost possession in the build-up to Alex Baena's equaliser, and Mikel Oyarzabal — who scored the winner against England in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin — settled the match with a 74th-minute goal.

Anthony Gordon was singled out as England's outstanding performer and Jude Bellingham was described as relentless in driving the side forward. The report criticised the defending of Guehi and O'Reilly and said Jarell Quansah, selected ahead of the recalled Trent Alexander-Arnold, looked uncertain and "does not look a natural right-back." Trafford was described as "blameless" and noted as being given two games before first-choice Jordan Pickford returns.

Tuchel defended aspects of his team's display in quoted remarks: "I'm not sure there was a lot of chaos. We had an incredible amount of high-ball recoveries in the opponent's half. I think 15 more than Spain. Overall, I think 15 in total in the first half. That only goes against a team like Spain if we play man to man, so we were very brave." He added: "The defending and the deep block were excellent, except for the third goal where we got cut open through the middle. This normally should not happen. "Offensively, I think we played in a clear structure. We tried to switch sides a lot. We tried to put the full-backs up to make the difference and they did. A lot of good stuff but unfortunately not the result." On the gap between the sides he said: "We saw no gap except for the technical execution. In the last 20 metres, they were superior than us."

Kane reflected on missed opportunity in his post-match comment: "I spoke before that we reached good levels at the World Cup but didn't quite put a full 90 minutes together. It was probably similar again here. We had a couple of good moments though, that period was as good as we've played in a long, long time and that's the standard we know we can reach. "We're playing against the world champions, the European champions, and we went toe-to-toe. On another day for sure we'd have won that game."

The report noted England have conceded 13 goals in their last six matches in all competitions, after allowing seven in their first 17 games under Tuchel, and reiterated that Trafford has been handed two games before Pickford's return.