Plan to re-energise Highlanders
MOSCOW: England finally overcame nearly 30 years of penalty pain when it beat Colombia 43 in a shootout yesterday after drawing its World Cup last16 clash 11 following extra time after the South Americans had equalised in the 93rd minute.
Beginning with its 1990 semifinal heartache against West Germany, England had previously lost all three World Cup shootouts and three out of four in the European Championship and looked on course for another nightmare when midfielder Jordan Henderson’s spot kick was saved by David Ospina.
But Colombia midfielder Mateus Uribe hit the bar and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford saved from Carlos Bacca, leaving Eric Dier to score the decisive penalty and earn a quarterfinal against Sweden, while denying the Colombians a second straight run to the last eight.
England’s first knockout victory since 2006 was particularly sweet for coach Gareth Southgate, whose shootout miss decided the Euro 1996 semifinal, and vindicated — just — his decision to field a secondstring side in the final group game defeat by Belgium to secure an easier route towards the final.
He should also be given credit for insisting his players practise penalties, even bringing in a psychologist to help them, after a succession of his predecessors wrote the whole process off as a lottery beyond their control.
‘‘We have fantastic supporters who have had to stand with us through decades of disappointment and this was a really special moment for our country,’’ Southgate said.
‘‘Today will give belief for generations to follow and not be hindered by history or expectations.
‘‘The players have really executed everything [in the shootout] that we’ve talked about exceptionally well and we showed incredible resilience to come back from huge disappointment at the final whistle and keep our calm.’’
If England gets past Sweden it faces a potential semifinal against host Russia or Croatia for its first appearance in a final since winning the World Cup for the only time in 1966.
England had looked set to be going through with few dramas when tournament leading scorer Harry Kane smashed in a 57thminute penalty, his sixth goal at the finals, only for Yerry Mina to head an equaliser in the third minute of stoppage time.
‘‘We were so unlucky not to go through in 90 minutes,’’ Kane, who also converted his shootout kick along with Marcus Rashford and Kieran Tripper, said.
‘‘Noone laid on the floor and we stood there when it counted.’’
A deflected shot from Emil Forsberg gave Sweden a 10 victory over Switzerland in a scrappy roundof16 match yesterday, sending the Swedes through to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in 24 years.
Both teams were wasteful in possession and guilty of the sort of poor finishing and unimaginative midfield play that had boos and whistles ringing around the St Petersburg stadium from as early as the 25th minute.
Switzerland went into the match with arguably the greater wealth of attacking talent, but its four shots on target over the 90 minutes told its own story.
Sweden had one attempt fewer on target, the only difference being that one effort took a heavy deflection and wrongfooted Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer to send the Swedes into the next round.
‘‘It’s the biggest goal of my career, one of the biggest moments in my career too. To experience this, to fire Sweden into a quarterfinals together with this group, it feels fantastic,’’ Forsberg — Reuters.