Conte tips captain Kane to take England all the way to World Cup glory

Antonio Conte heaped praise on Harry Kane for the important role he played in ensuring Tottenham finished the first half of the season in the Premier League top four and revealed he will be backing the England captain to go all the way in Qatar.

World Cup-bound Kane struck his 13th goal of the campaign to help Spurs edge a seven-goal thriller with Leeds, which saw them return to winning ways on home turf for the first time since 15 October.

A tricky period of 13 matches in 43 days has seen Tottenham largely struggle for consistency but Rodrigo Bentancur's late double ensured they concluded this gruelling spell with a dramatic 4-3 win.

All eyes were on Kane ahead of kick-off given this was his 22nd consecutive start of the campaign and his club boss had revealed he was "very, very tired" during Wednesday's Carabao Cup exit at Nottingham Forest but the hitman added another goal to his tally and played the full 90 minutes.

Conte insisted: "I have to be honest and I think in this period, especially the last 13 games, Harry played a really important role.

"If we finish this period in the top four and to have qualification for the next round of the Champions League, we have to place a lot on Harry because in this period we had many injuries but injuries up front.

"We lost (Dejan) Kulusevski and he only played this game. Then we lost Richarlison and without Lucas Moura from the start was difficult. Sonny also struggled a bit at the start of the season. I think Harry honestly deserves great praise.

"He is always an important player, but in this period I think a lot of weight was on his shoulders and he played in a fantastic way. Now he is arriving to play the World Cup with great enthusiasm, in a good physical condition and in my