WE HAVE LIFT-OFF
Harry’s header puts Three Lions into World Cup orbit
ENGLAND were left reaching for the stars in Russia’s space capital last night.
Samara is home to a museum that tells the tale of its role at the centre of Russia’s attempt to put a man on the moon.
His name was Yuri Gagarin and he reached outer space in his Vostock 1 craft in 1961, but he is not the only one around these parts feeling out of this world.
You can add the names of every single member of the England squad and management to that list – because the Three Lions have roared into the semi-finals of the World Cup.
That is not a misprint. It is not a wind-up or a cruel joke. Read it again if you don’t believe it – England have made it to the last four of the biggest competition in world football.
Harry Kane might be England’s rocket man at Russia 2018 following a remarkable SIX goals in
FOUR games – he missed the Group G clash with Belgium – to lead the race to win the Golden Boot award.
But here in the Samara Arena it was someone else’s turn to leave a whole nation feeling over the moon.
Step forward Harry Maguire, the likeable lad from Sheffield who has added some steel to a side now dreaming of going all the way to ultimate glory.
Maguire’s rise to superstardom typifies the remarkable one of the whole side in general.
Just two years ago Maguire was sat in the stands with his mates watching England as a fan at Euro 2016.
Like the rest of us, he wouldn’t have liked what he saw because the Three Lions were an utter shambles from back to front.
There was no structure. There was no substance. There was no identity and there was certainly no hope of us ever making an impact at a major tournament.
If Maguire had not been playing against Sweden yesterday, the chances are he would have been looking on again from the sidelines with his parents, brothers Laurence and Joe, sister Daisy, girlfriend Fern and his mates.
But thankfully he wasn’t. Instead, he was in the red of England making those mentioned above feel as proud as punch as Gareth Southgate’s men marched towards a semi-final showdown in Moscow.
Sweden cannot say they weren’t warned. Two years ago Maguire took to social media to vent his fury at the country with an expletive-fuelled rant.
By the sounds of it, Maguire had got into a pickle assembling a lamp from IKEA and vowed to seek vengeance on their national football team. Now he has.
Make no mistake. This wasn’t a classic. From the start Sweden were nothing like the furniture they produce or the stuff that made Maguire so mad. Janne Andersson’s men were well assembled and looked solid.
England resembled a side that were expected to win. There was tension and nerves as they toiled to break through a yellow road block designed to stop anything heading towards it.
But Maguire isn’t known as ‘slab head’ for nothing.
The towering defender is built like the proverbial outhouse and has become one of England’s most lethal weapons at set-pieces.
So it seemed almost inevitable someone like
Maguire would provide the breakthrough goal England so badly needed before half-time that set his side on the road to one of the most famous wins in our history.
His towering header – it had to be his head – past Robin
Olsen was as popular as it was magical, because Maguire is one of the most popular members of the squad. Not bad for someone who fell over within minutes of his professional debut as a teenager with Sheffield United against Cardiff. The prospect of stopping Craig Bellamy had literally sent him into a spin.
He has found his feet now, though. Just like the rest of Southgate’s side have during this remarkable run through Russia.
When Dele Alli made it 2-0 in the 59th minute with a much-needed goal in terms of his confidence and belief, the result was never in doubt.
The Swedes were crushed and the contest was over, because the only thing left to decide was how many more goals we might score. Ultimately the total didn’t matter. England had won and the fairytale continues. Southgate has made it his mission not to dream of winning the World Cup since it became clear his young charges were making a serious impact at the tournament. He knows a tidal wave of emotion can sometimes drown such dreams and leave people ruined.
But Southgate now has no choice but to think big.
He cannot pretend otherwise because if he doesn’t believe we can go on and win this thing, what message does it send to his players? England haven’t been in a World Cup semi-final since 1990 and since then, with the exception of Euro 96, we have suffered nothing but a generation of failure.
That was then and this is now. England are within 90 minutes of a World Cup Final and the game could be life changing for all involved. Football eh? Bloody hell.