Kane key for England against scrappy Swedes
The World Cup quarter-finals conclude Saturday as Sweden takes on England, followed by host Russia against Croatia. The winners meet next Wednesday.
England has to be full of confidence after finally ending the nation’s World Cup penalty shootout curse. England had been knocked out of the World Cup on penalties in 1990 by West Germany, 1998 by Argentina and 2006 by Portugal.
It seemed like history was about to repeat itself on Tuesday against Colombia. England prevailed though, and the team’s fans are feeling very optimistic.
Blessed with a favourable draw, England has an easy route to the final compared with past tournaments. Next up is Sweden, an opponent that can’t be too difficult, England fans joke, because “even Germany” managed to beat them!
The key for England is striker Harry Kane. He has goals in six consecutive games for his country, something that was last done by an England player back in 1939. Kane’s scoring spree has taken some of the pressure off teammates who haven’t performed as well as hoped.
Aside from Kane, Jesse Lingard has been lively, while Jordan Henderson has probably been England’s most consistent midfielder. Young Marcus Rashford’s pace has looked menacing when he’s come on, and he could play a bigger role in this game.
Meanwhile, Sweden is a tough side to defeat. Along with a well-organized defence, the Swedes keep finding ways to score, even though forward Marcus Berg, who led the team in qualifying with eight goals, has yet to find the mark in Russia.
Oddly enough, his strike partner Ola Toivonen has scored, even though the forward is coming off a season with French side Toulouse in which he counted no goals over 23 league games. Berg and Toivonen have played together for Sweden since their Under-19 days.
As for the second game, the hosts have to like their chances against Croatia after executing a perfect game plan to eliminate Spain. Expect Croatia to enjoy most of the possession, with Russia hitting on the counter-attack.
Russia is doing far better than anyone expected, and with the energy of the home crowd, the team can only get stronger. In midfield, Denis Cheryshev, Aleksandr Golovin and the tireless Roman Zobnin have really stepped up in the absence of injured playmaker Alan Dzagoev.
Croatia has a history of coming unglued when the heat is on. Midfield star Luka Modric will look to lead by example, though he looked tired against Denmark and can count himself lucky his poorly taken penalty in the shootout wasn’t stopped.
Modric leads the team in minutes played. Hopefully he doesn’t run out of gas.