They think ITV Curse is all over – it is now

Night of tension and doubt ends in unfamilar success for broadcaster, writes Adam Hurrey

Amid all the tentative hubris that followed England manoeuvring themselves into the supposedly “easier” side of the World Cup draw, one pesky detail loitered with intent. Of the 24 games they had played at the tournament since the night of David Beckham’s red card and Michael Owen’s wonder goal at France 98, England had won 10. Of those, nine had been broadcast live on the BBC.

Meanwhile, ITV had presided over 11 of their matches. England had won just one. A success rate of just nine per cent. This, officially, was The Curse. Apropos of nothing,

its opening montage last night began with the echoing words of the late, great Brian Moore, “and England sad, sad, sadly are out…”, a concession perhaps that – even in the context of our deflating recent tournament record – ITV is synonymous with English World Cup anti-climaxes. Then came the fightback. A range of heroic figures popped up on screen – Sir Geoff Hurst, Terry Butcher and, slightly less tub-thumpingly, Lee Dixon.

Ian Wright tried to offer assurance. “There’s something in the air”, he began, only to find that English football’s obsessive introspection demands that every potential positive has to be followed by a note of caution. Gary Neville, a note of caution made flesh, duly obliged by listing all the Colombian dangermen.

Neville demanded that England “get out quickly” and the same presumably applied to our boys in the gantry. Clive Tyldesley has famously seen some nights and was not beating around the bush: “This is England’s first World Cup knockout game for eight years. Their second could be four days away… or it could be four years away.” He let that sink in for a second. “Kick-off in just a moment.”

Alongside him, in this fallow era for iconic co-commentators, was Glenn Hoddle, the abiding World Cup image of whom is in that tucked-in polo shirt 20 years ago, chewing his gum as anxiously as he pointed digits at his 10 men in Saint-etienne against Argentina.

Fast-forward to 2018, and he was cryogenically unfrozen in the same state: periods of tense silence punctuated by intermittent bursts of pseudo-tactics. Aloof Glenn had the night off, Glenn the Perfectionist was on duty.

And then, just as Hoddle pronouncing Colombia’s No 9 as “Fal-cay-o” started to feel like asking for trouble, we finally got a break. Harry Kane won a penalty and – with a nervelessness that had eluded ITV all evening – converted