Berezutski strikes in added-on time to ruin England’s night
IT HAD a savage cradling, spawned by hours of dread and violence and ugliness on the streets, and when the tear gas drifted away and the wounded had been taken to hospital and darkness fell like a welcome shroud on a damned day, even the little beauty that England thought they had salvaged from their opening game of these European Championships was taken away.
The memories of a draw they snatched from the jaws of victory against Russia at the Stade Velodrome will mingle with recollections of chairs flying through the air, hooligans scattering around the Vieux Port, snarling faces, faces covered in blood, a local man holding out his arms in peace and being knocked unconscious by a sickening blow from an English or Russian yob, men lying prone and still on the pavement and the sound of breaking glass.
Those scenes meant last night’s draw was tainted with the air of defeat even before Russia’s equaliser deep into injury time. Those scenes meant it was impossible to view England’s match in isolation. For the first time in 16 years, we are forced to talk about an England football match not just in terms of the action on the pitch but also the havoc wrought by the team’s supporters.
What should have been an evening to rejoice at least in a screamer of a second half free kick from Eric Dier was tainted with despair. What should have been a night to dream that England might be on the verge of something good again was polluted with visions of English and Russian thugs battling each other on the waterfront as the tall masts of the ships in the harbour swayed mournfully in a soft breeze.
What should have been a night to look forward with optimism instead became an evening when worried frowns creased the faces of FA officials. The point that England won last night, Uefa may yet take away if the trouble that blighted the build-up to this match for three days is repeated in Lens when England play Wales on Thursday or in Saint-E-tienne where England meet Slovakia a week on Monday.
The poison of hooliganism, which makes this beautiful game wretch and writhe and grow ugly, is back. It appears that Russian thugs were responsible for the most chilling deeds of violence and mayhem but English idiots have played their part over the last few days, too. They, too, have brought shame on the team they claim to support.
And so at a time when French security forces are stretched to the limit trying to keep fans safe from the atrocities that have been threatened by terrorists, fans responded by rampaging through the streets with knives and chairs and whatever they could lay their hands on. The sheer disgusting stupidity of it beggared belief.
To walk through the Vieux Port yesterday morning, before the worst of the trouble flared, was already to hear the sound of defeat. It was the sound of broken green glass from shattered beer bottles crunching under foot. It was the sound of a disease that we thought had been vanquished returning with a snarling, gleeful vengeance.
It is a sobering thought that the next major tournament takes place in Russia two summers hence. Russian football is shot through with racism and hooliganism and yet we have entrusted it with the 2018 World Cup. It will be a strange way to celebrate football.
England’s players did their best to banish the darkness. After some of the doubts that have surrounded them in recent weeks, they played with verve and flair and attacking relish. And Wayne Rooney, who has been the subject of much unwarranted criticism, played like a man reborn to vindicate Roy Hodgson’s gamble of starting him in midfield for his country for the first time.
Some had started to doubt him. Some even flung up their arms in horror at the idea that he still deserved a place in the England starting line-up. Many worried that Hodgson was twisting the team out of shape to try to accommodate him and the news that he was to start in midfield for the first time for England exacerbated the concern.
He began the match as if he were still responding to the question, urgent and assured. Sitting deep on the left of a midfield three, he dictated the play, spreading the ball out to the right to Kyle Walker, stretching the Russia defence out of shape. It was Rooney’s pass that started the move from which Adam Lallana nearly opened the scoring after seven minutes.
One glorious first-time crossfield pass to Harry Kane a few minutes later brought cheers of appreciation from the England fans who dominated at the Stade Velodrome. Rooney was a constant prompt using short passes to play around the Russians and helping England to outplay them utterly in the first half.
With Rooney at their core, England looked sharper and quicker and more fluent than they have done for some time. He seemed to have a liberating effect on other players, too, particularly Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling, who both caused endless problems.
Rooney was at the heart of everything they did as the probed and probed for the opening goal. He hit the post deep into the second half and just as it seemed the winner would never come, Dier smashed in his free kick. England could not hold on, though, and after the final whistle, more trouble erupted in the stands as fans ran and scattered. It was a fitting end.