DIEGO HANDS IT TO SOUTHGATE
Relief for England as Maradona is kind to us this time
NOTHING will ever make up for that dastardly act in 1986 but the Hand of God did do England something of a favour here yesterday.
Diego Maradona drew the balls from Pot Two and, while it would be stretching it a bit to suggest it was some kind of intervention, extracting six countries from the glass bowl prior to picking out England proved hugely beneficial to Gareth Southgate’s side.
As Southgate admitted afterwards, he had rather hoped to avoid Brazil and at one stage there was a 50 per cent chance of getting the much-fancied South Americans or Germany.
But England escaped two of the strongest sides in the competition and were instead planted in Group G, with Belgium already selected as the highest seed. In his role as host, Gary Lineker joked Maradona was ‘good with his hands’, and so it proved once again.
England’s good fortune continued with Tunisia and Panama completing a group from which Southgate and his players should progress.
Yes, England contrived to lose to Iceland at Euro 2016 and only last month Panama drew with Wales, very nearly beating them. But there was certainly no need for cut-throat gestures. No sense of impending doom. No need to even wear what Southgate said was a ‘reasonable poker face’. Caught by the television cameras licking his lips, England’s manager had every reason to feel satisfied.
Even concerns over travelling long distances evaporated inside the grand concert hall of the State Kremlin Palace. England will have 4,066 miles of flying from their St Petersburg base when it could have been as much as 6,000. They begin with Tunisia in Volgograd on June 18, then meet Panama in Nizhny Novgorod six days later before facing Roberto Martinez’s Belgium in Kaliningrad on June 28.
Assuming England do not capitulate for a third straight tournament they will meet Poland, Senegal, Colombia or Japan in the last 16, with the likelihood that Germany or Brazil will then be waiting for Southgate and his young squad in the quarter-finals.
Southgate laughed at mention of that last night, suggesting it would be wrong to ‘get ahead of ourselves’. But he appreciated the fact that Maradona had not given England such a difficult encounter earlier in the tournament.
‘Having played Brazil last month, I wasn’t disappointed to be missing out on them in the group,’ said Southgate. ‘Having said that Belgium, with the quality of players they’ve got, the way they have qualified, they are a top team.’
With so many of their players in the Premier League, Belgium are a known quantity. But Southgate conceded that he knew little about the other two sides and would now be focused on doing his homework. ‘There’s quite a bit of unknown in the group at the moment,’ he said. ‘We have never played Panama.
‘But Tunisia takes me back to Marseille and the 1998 World Cup, one of the best days of my life. Playing my first game in the World Cup finals for England, an incredible atmosphere, just the colour of it, Beatles music playing before the game. It was a brilliant day.
‘I remember sitting with Teddy Sheringham in doping control for an hour-and-a-half afterwards.
‘It was a brilliant occasion, so to be leading the country out into that same occasion, the first game of the World Cup, I am hugely proud.’
Belgium, he suggested, would lead to plenty of ‘banter going on at Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea’. He added: ‘I know Roberto really well and I did my coaching courses with Graeme Jones (Martinez’s assistant). I’m sure we will be bumping into each other at Premier League matches for the next couple of months.’
He also knew that Hernan Dario Gomez, who will manage Panama at their first World Cup, was in charge of the Colombia side who met England in 1998, to continue that particular theme. ‘I remember the goal that Beckham scored,’ said Gomez. ‘And Owen. They were a very good team.’
As Southgate quite rightly pointed out, it would be foolish to dismiss the threat of Tunisia and Panama even if they are 250-1 and 1,000-1 outsiders respectively. Not least when Iceland and Costa Rica have halted England’s progress in the previous two tournaments.
‘We have to be focused, to make sure nothing is taken for granted,’ he said. ‘But we also have to handle the expectation of being one of the favourite teams in the group.’
He was, however, pleased with the locations of the games, with no flight time exceeding two hours. And the relatively late start to England’s campaign was also something he regarded as a benefit given how often fatigue becomes an issue for players at the end of a gruelling Premier League season.
Belgium will, of course, have similar concerns. They were hugely impressive in qualifying, securing 28 points from 10 games and scoring 43 goals with the combined attacking threat of Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne.
But Martinez, who has an English daughter in four-year-old Luella, will join Southgate in hoping the Premier League is kind to his side.
‘You have to accept that the players have got big, important roles to fulfil from now until the end of the season, winning titles, playing in big games,’ said the former Everton and Wigan boss.
‘ When it comes to playing England, it is a game where there are no secrets. But it was a very good draw in terms of the group.’
Tunisia’s Nabil Maaloul lives in Qatar and watches the Premier League every weekend, so would claim to know more about England and Belgium than his opponents know about his team.
He also happens to think this England side are inferior to the one Tunisia faced in France 19 years ago. ‘ Perhaps in 1998 there were many more stars, many more big players,’ he said.
‘But right now there is a team. You feel there is one team.’
A team who should have serious designs on a place in the last eight of the World Cup.
Gareth had a very good reason to be licking his lips