The World Cup semi finals are officially set, but only after some truly great matches took place in the quarterfinals. Maybe the most gripping of them all involved England taking on France. The two soccer superpowers collided for a hard fought contest, with France coming out on top 2-1. Things could have been different, though, had Harry Kane managed to tie the game on his second penalty kick of the game in the 84th minute.

Kane tied the game at 1-1 early in the second half after converting a penalty, and found himself with a chance to tie the match once again after Olivier Giroud had given France a 2-1 lead in the 78th minute. Kane skied the penalty over the goal, though, and ended up finding himself on the wrong side of history in the aftermath of the game.

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Harry Kane Tottenham

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Harry Kane in front of the Arsenal and Bayern Munich logos, angry fans in the background

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Harry Kane celebrating inbetween the Bayern Munich and Tottenham logos

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Kane certainly found himself with a good opportunity to put England back into the game, but he couldn't convert his second penalty of the game. And as the stat above shows, Kane became the first player in World Cup history to attempt two penalty kicks in a knockout stage game, but fail to make both of them.

This isn't to say England lost solely because of Kane, but his failure to convert this penalty certainly didn't help. No one knows what would have happened had he evened the score, but there's a decent chance this game would have advanced to extra time. Instead, England bowed out earlier than they would have liked, and it will hurt even more after Harry Kane missed a great opportunity with this penalty kick.