Scoring ace Lukaku on a footballing mission
Dele Alli will start against Colombia after exiting England’s opening game with a thigh strain.
in the world, playing at the World Cup, in the Champions League. I believe I’m ready.”
Alli, still only 22, returns to England’s starting XI for their round of 16 match against Colombia after straining a thigh in their opening 2-1 win over Tunisia. He missed the 6-1 victory over Panama and the 1-0 defeat by Belgium but returns to join Jesse Lingard as joint-No 8s in Gareth Southgate’s side to face Colombia. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fabian Delph give way as England’s best starting XI writes itself.
By any measure, Alli’s recovery is a major boost for Southgate and there is a feeling around the camp that Harry Kane’s Tottenham teammate is on the verge of something special.
Four years ago, Alli was scoring twice in a game in Dublin. “I was at Milton Keynes in pre-season,” he said. “There was a bar in the hotel we were staying in, and we went in there to watch the World Cup. I’ve always been very confident in my skill. I work hard every day. You always have to stay hungry, no matter what happens in your career. You have to want more, score more, perform better. No one is perfect.
“There are always things to improve and learn. I’m lucky to have had great managers around me, putting belief in me and helping me. If you’re hungry, nothing can stop you.”
Pressed further on his early life in Milton Keynes, Alli said: “As you will have seen, it’s a beautiful place. I learnt a lot growing up there. The academy is a lot different to where I’m at now. I think it helped shape me as a player, it gave me the fearlessness going into any challenge against anyone. I’m ready for it and I won’t be scared. You have to work hard, I knew that from playing there.
“You have to work hard every day in training. You have to go outside and tidy up the cones, clean the older players’ boots. It taught me not to take anything for granted, and I never will. I can’t thank the people enough there for what they did for me.”
It is one of the gifts of being the most talented teenager footballer in the world that Kylian Mbappe makes fast defenders look slow and slow defenders look ridiculous, although in the end, this was about bigger things than just a first-half demolition of Marcos Rojo.
The 19-year-old’s savage turn of pace that won France the penalty for their first goal saw him flash before our eyes while the careers of half a dozen Argentinian defenders and midfielders were flashing before theirs. It was one of those moments when every old pro recognises when the legs are getting slower, the youngsters are getting quicker and the best they can hope for is to kick him — before he reaches the area.
At the other end of the pitch, the unreadable Lionel Messi weighed up what the chances were of surviving another opponent like this, and then another, and then another, with a team of willing triers from Argentina’s domestic league and beyond.
If his old friend Javier Mascherano, who retired from the international game at the end, was still the best bet for holding midfield, then Messi will know himself that he barely has to ask the question.
It would be nonsense to say the baton was handed from Messi to Mbappe on this hot afternoon in Tatarstan because no one can lay claim to what Argentina’s No 10 has done until they have dominated the opposition for at least a decade.
But you could imagine a reluctant acceptance in Messi as he surveyed the gallant attempts of Enzo Perez, Nicolas Tagliafico, Maximiliano Meza et al to compete with this talented generation of young Frenchmen and it was not hard to guess his thoughts.
Messi has done his best for a very poor Argentina squad and coach Jorge Sampaoli, whose attitude towards his surfeit of attacking talent has been to play fewer and fewer of them as the tournament progressed.
Perhaps Messi’s last act as an Argentina international was to stroke the cross on to the head of Sergio Aguero at the back post for a goal that Romelu Lukaku is already Belgium’s all-time leading goal scorer, part of potentially their greatest-ever side and Manchester United’s first-choice centre forward, although it was his life growing up that he ended up discussing after sitting out his country’s win over England.
The 25-year-old is fit, he says, after a small tweak of his ankle ligaments in the game against Tunisia, and will be back in the team for the round of 16 tie with Japan tomorrow.
Catch Lukaku when he is willing to talk and he is a warm and open individual, clearly well liked by the many England players from all clubs who stopped to wish him well before heading for their bus.
It was his open letter published on the Players’ Tribune website that he was asked about in particular, filling in the gaps of a life growing up in the village of Wintam, outside Brussels, with his brother Jordan, also in the Kylian Mbappe (left) celebrates with Lucas Hernandez after scoring the first of his two goals yesterday.
narrowed the margin to closer than it should have been.
If he is to win the World Cup in Qatar to end all arguments about the greatest of all time, then Messi will have to do so at the age of 35, and squad, and mother Adolphine.
He talked about the lunches of bread and milk, which his mother occasionally had to water down, and the literal hunger that he felt in those early days when he would break goalscoring records to win a plate of pancakes from his coach and made his senior debut aged 16.
The challenges of his early life have been reported before but it was the scale of his family’s occasional poverty, despite his father Roger’s professional football career, that were particularly striking.
Lukaku said he did it for all those children of African heritage who find themselves living in Europe with parents struggling with the same problems.
“It was something I had never done before,” he said. “The way I grew up, people don’t know the details.
while that is not beyond the realm of possibilities, his country will have to find him 10 new teammates in order to do so.
At the end, Messi stood for a while in his own half, while his teammates Romelu Lukaku has talked about the challenges of his early life.
kept a respectful distance. Eventually he walked off with barely a glance up at the Argentina fans who had dominated the stadium, a curt departure and a cold stare.
It had been a low-key perform- For me, it was difficult at the start to do it, but now people know that, for me, my back was against the wall from the start.
“From my youngest memory, I’ve always had my back against the wall. I play this game of football because I have a mission. I made a promise. I love the game, and when you make your passion your job and you have a job to make sure your family is OK at that end, it is the best thing ever. I think players need to tell people the way