Manson a decisive winner
half. Neither hit the target with their headers.
It was the second time England and Belgium met in this tournament. In the group stage, both teams had already qualified before Belgium’s 1-0 win in Kaliningrad.
England coach Gareth Southgate made five changes to face Belgium, but Danny Rose and Fabian Delph made little impact while Dier started slowly but threatened in the second half. Phil Jones failed to intercept the pass which led to Hazard’s goal.
The two replacements in Belgium’s line-up were more effective. Meunier scored and Youri Tielemans dominated midfield.
Kane was still poised to win the Golden Boot with six goals, barring a hat-trick from France’s Antoine Griezmann or Kylian Mbappe in the final. Kane last scored in England’s win over Colombia in the round of 16. Yesterday, he slipped as he shot wide in the first half, then failed to make contact with Jesse Lingard’s cross early in the second.
Romelu Lukaku couldn’t add to his four goals for Belgium and was substituted shortly after misjudging a through ball by De Bruyne. Robbie Manson is set to scull for New Zealand at the world championships — and based on last night’s performance, he’s set to win gold.
Manson destroyed the field with a superb display in the World Cup single sculls final in Lucerne, storming home in the last 1000m to win by four seconds and emphatically book his spot for September’s world championships in Bulgaria.
The victory was the conclusion to a competition between Manson and Mahe Drysdale, with the duo fighting for New Zealand’s sole single sculls seat available for the world championships.
While the win doesn’t give Manson an automatic place in the team, he would have left no doubt in the selectors’ minds after continuing the dominant form which saw him also take victory at the World Cup meet in Austria last month.
To unseat Manson, the 39-year-old Drysdale would have required something special, and while his fourth place was respectable, he crossed the line seven seconds behind Manson — a continuation of a season which has seen the returning Olympic champion significantly off the pace of the flying 28-year-old.
Everybody is at the moment, after Manson put together a well-timed race. He started off slowly as defending world champion Ondrej Synek held a two-second lead through the first 1000m.
Manson, fourth through 500m, slowly picked his way through the field, being the fastest man in every sector from then on and storming past the fading Synek.
Drysdale was also on the move after sitting last, but while his surge got him to fourth, Manson stepped up his stroke rate, powering to a commanding victory.
“That was really hard out there,” Manson told World Rowing. “Ondrej took off and I just stepped it up progressively through the race but was able to ease off towards the end. This is one of my favourite places to row, so it’s great to have won here.”
Manson’s victory capped a golden start to finals day for New Zealand, with two other Kiwi crews also standing atop the dais.
The women’s pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler continued their dominant run, though they were given a tough test by their Canadian rivals. The Kiwi duo led throughout, and eventually just held off the fast-finishing Canadians by 0.4 of a second.
While they were expected to win gold, a surprise came with the Kiwi men’s pair of Thomas Murray and Michael Brake.
Having sat out last month’s World Cup regatta due to injury, the pair shone in Lucerne, overcoming a nervy final 500m to win.
Murray and Brake put the power down in the third sector, pulling out to a three-second lead with 500m remaining, but had to cling on due to poor steering.
At one point, it looked as though they had collected a buoy with an oar, and by the final metres, the boat’s left oar was encroaching well into the lane of the Czech Republic pair outside them. Despite the issues, they held on to win by 0.65 seconds over France, with the Czech Republic third.
“That was a little bit dramatic, I need to improve on my steering a little,” laughed Murray.
“From now, we will try and work on our speed but I’m glad we could have a good race.”
The other medal of the regatta early last night went to the lightweight women’s double sculls pairing of Zoe McBride and Jackie Kiddle, who claimed silver, two seconds behind the quality Polish duo.