There are nights when a tournament turns on the temperament of one man, and this was such a night for England. Trailing to a spirited Congo DR side for the better part of an hour and a half at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, England were rescued by Harry Kane, whose two goals in the final quarter dragged his country out of a hole and into the last 16 of the World Cup. The scoreline reads 2-1, but the story it tells is one of nerve held under duress.

For long spells this looked like the kind of Round of 32 upset that lives forever in the folklore of the competition. Congo DR had struck early, defended with organisation and belief, and forced the favourites into the ragged, hurried football of a team beginning to fear the worst. That England did not succumb owes everything to their captain and to the winger who supplied him twice when it mattered most.

In the end the margin was slender and the manner was frantic, but knockout football rarely rewards the fastidious. England survived, and survival is its own kind of triumph at this stage.

An early jolt

The warning came inside seven minutes and it was delivered with real quality. Chancel Mbemba, the veteran presence at the heart of the Congo DR side, slid a pass into space on the left, and Brian Cipenga did the rest, opening his body to sweep a right-footed shot from the edge of the box into the bottom-left corner. The finish was clean, confident and utterly deserved on the balance of that opening exchange.

It was the sort of start that scrambles a favourite's certainties. England, who had come to Atlanta expecting to control the tempo, suddenly found themselves chasing a game against a team happy to sit, absorb and break. The goal gave Congo DR a platform, and they built on it with discipline, funnelling England into the wide areas and daring them to find a way through a crowded penalty box.

For much of the first half the noise around the stadium carried the frisson of a shock in the making. England probed without penetration, their passing a beat too slow, their movement a fraction too predictable. Cipenga's strike hung over proceedings like a threat that would not lift.

The captain answers

The equaliser, when it finally came on 75 minutes, bore the fingerprints of England's most reliable combination. Anthony Gordon, given room at last on the flank, whipped in a cross of real precision, and Harry Kane met it with a header from the centre of the box that arrowed into the bottom-left corner. It was a goal of pure centre-forward instinct, the timing and the placement the product of a career built on such moments.

The relief was seismic, but Kane was not done. Eleven minutes later he settled the tie with a finish of a different flavour entirely. Gordon was the provider once more, and this time Kane took possession on the right side of the box before lashing a right-footed shot into the top-right corner, a strike of conviction that left the goalkeeper rooted. In the space of a quarter of an hour the captain had turned a night of dread into one of deliverance.

Two goals, two assists from Gordon, and a scoreline flipped on its head. It was the intervention England needed and the reassertion of an old truth: that a tournament team lives or dies by the quality of its finishers, and in Kane, England possess one of the finest of his generation.

A brave Congo DR

There will be no consolation for Congo DR in the manner of their exit, only the knowledge that they came within fifteen minutes of one of the great World Cup ambushes. Mbemba marshalled his defence with the authority of a man who has seen everything the game can offer, and Cipenga's early strike deserved to be the headline rather than a footnote. For 75 minutes they executed their plan to something close to perfection.

The cruelty of knockout football is that bravery is not always enough. Congo DR gave England a fright and gave themselves every chance, but the concession of two late goals undid an evening's worth of resistance. When the equaliser went in, their structure wobbled, and the winning goal followed with a swiftness that spoke of confidence drained.

They leave the tournament with their reputation enhanced rather than diminished. Few gave them a prayer against England, and for the best part of the match they looked the more coherent side. That counts for something, even if it does not count for a place in the last 16.

Onward, just about

For England, this was less a performance to savour than a result to bank. Progress to the Round of 16 was the objective, and the objective was met, but the display will have furrowed brows as much as it soothed them. A team with genuine ambitions in this competition cannot make a habit of trailing to sides they are expected to beat, nor of leaving their rescue so late in the day.

And yet there is a case for the defence. Great tournament runs are stitched together from nights exactly like this one — awkward, uncomfortable, salvaged by a moment of individual class. The ability to win when playing poorly is a hallmark of teams that go deep, and England found a way when the path seemed to be closing in front of them.

The reward is a place in the next round and the chance to build on it. Kane's double will command the back pages, and rightly so, but the wider lesson is plain: England have the firepower to escape trouble, and now they must find the control to avoid it altogether. For one night, at least, escape was enough.