It's not coming home, yet

England's wait for a second World Cup title extended for at least another four years as Harry Kane missed a late spot kick in a 2-1 defeat against defending champions France at the Al Bayt Stadium on Saturday night.

Having converted a first spot-kick in the 54th minute to bring his side back into the game following Aurelien Tchouameni's wonder-strike in the 18th minute, the England captain blasted the second one way over the bat to see the defending champions squeeze into the semifinals.

It was a painful defeat for the English, who had dominated parts of the game against a French side who didn't look like at their imperious best on the night.

The English, who played probably their best football in the previous match in a 3-0 win over Senegal, were inconsolable after the defeat, with Kane looking particularly lonely as he had the chance to take the match into extra time after Olivier Giroud had regained the lead for France 

Midfielder Jordan Henderson, though, defended his captain as the English players gathered themselves while the French reveled.

"It feels like a missed chance because I felt the performances were really good and the focus and the hunger was good every single day," Henderson said after the match.

"He scored the first one and how many goals he has scored to get us here.... he'll be stronger for it in the long run I'm sure. He's a world-class striker and our captain and we wouldn't have even been here without him," Henderson added.

English chants at the beautiful Al Bayt Stadium had turned the atmosphere electric as the Three Lions made a promising start, but Tchouameni's strike stunned them into silence and the French fans found their voice for the first time.

The French grew into the game, led by the effervescent Kylian Mbappe but England mounted a fightback in the second half and caused jitters in the French defence, forcing two penalties.

Although England couldn't pose too much of a challenge for Hugo Lloris at France goal,  there was a sense that this England side, with supremely gifted youngsters such as Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham in attack spearheaded by Kane, could make a difference. The England faithful believed so as they hung around till Marcus Rashford's free-kick just missed the target by a few inches deep into added time.

Even in defeat the England players and officials got a huge applause from their travelling fans, who will be hoping that the long wait for the second title will end sooner rather than later.

England were one of only two sides at this stage of the tournament to have not lost a game – the other being the surprise package Morocco, and they had shown in the last two major tournaments, reaching the semifinals in Russia 2018 and finishing second in Euro 2020 that they were a force on the rise. 

England dominated key statistics, too, in the match and they were also the most disciplined side of the tournament, conceding their only booking at the fag end of the quarterfinal. 

But football is sometimes a game of fine margins and that's where the French, with more experience of closing out close matches, made the difference.

"We had more shots on goal and yeah the goalkeeper's made a couple of really good saves for us. But it's a game of fine margins," England manager Gareth Southgate said after the match.