Harry Kane has played before at the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade. It was with his former club Tottenham in 2019 and it is for good reason that the England captain lists it among his top three most intimidating away venues. The others, for the record, are Marseille’s Vélodrome and Galatasaray’s Rams Park.
Kane went to the former with Spurs in 2022 and it did not matter that the Virage Nord was closed after incidents involving the Marseille support. He sampled the ear-splitting whistles of the latter with his current club, Bayern Munich, in 2023. Red Star’s ground is called the Rajko Mitic Stadium these days but the basic malevolence has not changed.
“It’s just the walk from the changing room to the pitch – it feels like a mile long,” Kane said. “There’s a lot of fans, you hear a lot of noise, a lot of banging. So, yeah, it was pretty hostile.”
Kane returns with England for the World Cup qualifier against Serbia on Tuesday night and it promises to be a frenzied occasion, even if almost 15% of the stadium will be empty on Fifa orders. The governing body has doled out the punishment after the discriminatory behaviour of Serbia’s fans against Andorra in June.
The pressure will come not only from the hardliners in the home seats but from those in the visiting enclosure and many more on sofas up and down England. Because this is a tie that has the trappings of a moment of truth.
It will be incumbent on Kane to lead from the front, helping the less experienced players around him. Dan Burn, Myles Lewis‑Skelly, Elliot Anderson and Noni Madueke have no reference points for a crunch England fixture. It is certainly a blow that injuries have ruled out John Stones, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka, among others. Above all, though, it is Thomas Tuchel who will feel the burn.
It is only camp No 3 for the manager but, as he is acutely aware, the time is tight and, thus far, it has all been pretty underwhelming. The wins have come, apart from in the friendly defeat by Senegal at the City Ground – it has been four out of four in qualification Group K, with no goals conceded. Yet there is a sense of Tuchel feeling various pennies drop; of him groping for the answers.
Before the 2-0 victory against Andorra at Villa Park on Saturday, Tuchel talked about trying to simplify his approach and messaging to the players. Perhaps this is not a job for a detail freak. Tuchel, of course, is a detail freak. Afterwards he suggested he may be open to becoming even more unreconstructed further down the line, using long throws and high balls up from the back. Is this him?
Tuchel wanted to try Stones in the No 6 role against Serbia, which would have been interesting. What it also showed is how he worries that he does not have a specialist for the position. Tuchel does not want Kane to drop too deep from the No 9 spot. Yet when he did not on Saturday, he had only 12 touches. The goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, had 24. What of Marcus Rashford on the left wing? Tuchel has shown incredible trust in him. It has not yet been repaid.
There is the theory that Tuchel has been in a no-win situation in his opening qualifiers, especially the two against Andorra, which followed those against Albania and Latvia at Wembley. Low block tedium, no spaces to impress; victories simply presumed. Kane appeared to warm to the theme. “Look at the other day,” he said. “You win 2-0, it’s not enough. You win 5-0, it’s only Andorra. It’s almost a lose-lose.”
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So, by extension, is it not a good thing to have a proper game with actual jeopardy? If there is the possibility of a bad result, there is something to be gained from getting a good one. The fear is that defeat could bring the knives out for Tuchel from those supporters who, frankly, had made up their minds about him before he had taken charge of his first game. Kane wanted to push the upside.
“When you go to tough environments, you sometimes come away, especially when you win, with an even better feeling,” he said. “When you get through these types of games together, especially as a newish team like we are, that’s how you build experiences and togetherness.
“There might be times when we have to stick together, defend as a team and, ultimately, find a way to win. When you are able to do that against these types of oppositions in these stadiums, I feel like that builds an extra layer of togetherness that you can’t form without playing.
“So far [under Tuchel]we’ve had a lot of games where we’ve played against low blocks, where we’ve had a lot of possession and have almost played against ourselves in a way. The teams we’ve faced are almost happy to lose 1-0 or 2-0, whereas tomorrow night is going to be completely different. Hopefully, we can show the best version of ourselves – with and without the ball.”
Kane might have liked to make one final point about Belgrade, Marseille and Istanbul, his unholy trinity, although he left it unsaid. His Spurs team won 4-0 and 2-1 at Red Star and Marseille respectively, while Bayern beat Galatasaray 3-1. Kane loves these battles. Once more unto the breach.
