Pickford steps up to banish hoodoo
Dier holds his nerve as Southgate’s men clear psychological hurdle in Colombian shoot-out COLOMBIA 1 ENGLAND 1 AET, ENGLAND WIN 4-3 ON PENS
THIS is a new England in one way for sure: through 10 penalties, three misses and the psychological torment that the team endures in such moments they emerged victorious for only the second tournament shoot-out in their history to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.
England are through to the last eight and this World Cup is already a success with this first victory in a knockout game at a tournament since 2006, but now the expectation has to be that England can make the semi-finals.
They face Sweden in Samara on Saturday and that already feels like a game more winnable than this was – an electrifying bolt goes through England at the thought of what is possible.
They had been two minutes of injury-time away from a place in the quarter-finals, engulfed by rage on all sides by a Colombia team that was driven on by their own sense of injustice and a refusal to be beaten.
REFUSAL
The equaliser from Yerryy Mina in a England penalty area encompass in gm passing every Colombian other thanan the corner-taker could have been another unforgettable wrongong turn in the history of an England team but, havingg won it once, they went outt and won it again.
After extra-time the pen-alties went down to thee 10th decisive kick from Ericc Dier, who laid the ghost of six penalty shoot-out failuresres to rest by beating the Arsenalnal goalkeeper David Ospina.
Jordan Pickford had savedved the fifth from Carlos Bacca, andd the pre-previous had been crashed againstainst the bar by Mate us Uribe. Jordan Henderson Henderson, history will note, also had his penalty saved, but instead of being a decisive moment it is simply a footnote to a splendid day for English football.
They had been so close once before and at that last corner of regulation time they led through a Harry Kane penalty, having handleddled the very best Colombia had served up, which was a lot of anger and intensity if not that much quality. For the most part, Gareth Southgate’s players had kept their calm, moved the ball out from the back with patience, and when Kane had been given the opportunity he dispatched his sixth goal of the tournament from the spot.
Kane had epitomised the best of England - cool under pressure, keeping possession, drawing fouls. But there had been others too, including John Stones and Harry Maguire who had done nothing wrong in their defensive work or in the demands made of them to pass the ball out from the back.
What went wrong? In those last
stages of the regulation 90 minutes, England fell back, Southgate opting for Eric Dier as a replacement for Dele Alli and that instinct towards safety-first seemed to draw Colombia on to them.
The South Americans were without James Rodriguez, their chief playmaker and that hurt them, but in his absence they kept their shape in midfield and defence and tried to pick England off quickly when possession was handed over.
There was a strong performance from the tall, powerful Barcelona centre-back Mina, who would later get the equaliser, and alongside him Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez. The Colombians were as obstructive and awkward as they could be for the many first half set-pieces England had, doubling down on Kane and Maguire and it was from a free-kick that the first key flashpoint emerged.
That was a major jostle within a defensive wall and the midfielder Wilmar Barrios momentarily losing his cool with Jordan Henderson, thrusting his head into his chest and then upwards into the Liverpool man’s jaw. It was hard to tell why, only to say that the Colombians were right on the edge, including Cuadrado for much of the game and that meant they took risks.
In this instance the American referee Matt Geiger might have sent off Barrios but chose a yellow card.
That intensity of mood and animosity just seemed to ratchet up and then the penalty came for England, as Colombia pushed too far at another defensive set-piece. Kane was at the back of a queue of four England players with the defender Carlos Sanchez inserted between them and as the striker broke forward he was held back before going down with the Colombian on his back.
In the minutes after his decision to give a penalty, the referee Geiger lost control, with the Colombians looming over him. It meant that Kane was obliged to wait until at last he struck his penalty, much more central than the previous two but Ospina had already launched himself to the right.
HURT
The time that had been taken out of the game at that penalty would later come back to hurt England. They were forced to defend but survived a mistake: Kyle Walker letting in the substitute Bacca from whose pass Cuadrado missed the target wildly.
What caught England was Colombia’s power at set-pieces, and a final corner conceded when Pickford pushed a shot wide and up came every yellow shirt as well as Ospina to try to force the equaliser. It was Mina who got the ball, a downward header which bounced in front of Kieran Trippier and which the full-back headed upwards, as if he was trying to push over the bar instead of heading out.
The third minute of time added on, and the equaliser had come for Colombia, their bench surging forward onto the pitch. England had lost the impetus, with Dier’s more defensive instincts and, ahead of him, Jamie Vardy, on for Sterling, struggled to get into the game. Marcus Rashford came on and took one of the penalties at the end – one of the four who signalled that a new England is here. (© Daily Telegraph, London)