Kane in great company as perfect group gains momentum

HARRY PASSES PELE WITH ANOTHER DEADLY DOUBLE

- JOHN CROSS IN TIRANA

HARRY KANE insists England deserve to go to the World Cup as one of the favourites, because they are in the form of their lives.

England's Captain Marvel surpassed Brazil legend Pele's international goal tally as Kane scored twice to take himself to 78 goals for his country to complete a perfect qualifying campaign.

It was an eighth straight win for the Three Lions and they became the first European team to complete a qualifying campaign without conceding a single goal.

That underlined England's potential ahead of next summer and Kane believes they are now in the form of their lives under head coach Thomas Tuchel.

England have gone close in previous tournaments, reaching the World Cup semifinal in 2018 and the past two Euros finals, but Kane believes they can go even further next summer in North America.

Bayern Munich striker Kane said: "It's as good as we've ever had. We're going to go into the tournament as one of the favourites and we have to accept that, it's been like that the past few tournaments now and that's part of it.