Each time Bukayo Saka skinned Michel Aebischer to reach the byline, Kane was not even in the penalty area to receive the cutback, trundling forward with all the pace of a wheelbarrow. The spectacle was testing the patience of Alan Shearer, a man with a fair sense of what it takes to be a predatory England No 9, as he described him as “running on empty”. Kane could legitimately claim, with 65 international goals to Shearer’s 30, to have no time for such carping. Except his predecessor’s verdict was true not just of this match, but the entire campaign so far.
Can a country’s all-time record scorer ever be a dead weight? At 39, Cristiano Ronaldo has offered plenty of evidence to support the thesis, with his younger Portugal team-mates reduced to servicing his colossal vanity. While Kane, nine years Ronaldo’s junior, is hardly the hubristic type, the blunting of his threat has hampered England. He should be the virtuoso concert pianist feeding off the orchestra, but it is as if he has decided not even to turn up for his recital.
His fitness continues to be a concern. Kane injured his ankle for Bayern Munich in March and has rarely been the same force since. This time, he insisted there was no underlying issue, explaining that Southgate had taken him off as a precaution after his ungainly extra-time crash into the touchline water bottles, causing him cramp in both calves. He had resembled the walking wounded all evening, initially hurt in a clash of heads with Granit Xhaka before Akanji bundled him off the pitch altogether.
The vexed debate England must confront before their semi-final with the Dutch on Wednesday is whether Kane deserves to start. Besides the article of faith that a captain is essentially undroppable, there is little compelling justification for Kane remaining a protected species. Switzerland’s Breel Embolo was everything he was not here: menacing, alert, attacking the ball at every opportunity. He conveyed only inertia, incapable of winning free-kicks or of moving with any freedom. Toney eclipsed him for impact in the space of just 11 minutes. Can Southgate afford, with such proven poachers as Toney and Ollie Watkins straining at the leash, to keep his trust in a virtually immobile Kane?