England finally wins penalty shootout
History of heartbreak erased as England edges Colombia to reach quarterfinal round
MOSCOW — In a World Cup of surprises, England provided the latest by finally winning a penalty shootout.
A long run of penalty misery on soccer’s biggest stage ended in a 4-3 shootout victory over Colombia on Tuesday, sending England to the quarterfinals for the first time in 12 years.
Eric Dier scored the decisive kick after a scrappy game ended in a 1-1 draw, denying Colombia a second consecutive trip to the quarterfinals.
“It was a nervous one,” Dier said. “I’ve never really been in a situation like that before.”
England will next play Sweden on Saturday in Samara. It is the furthest England has progressed in any tournament since the David Beckham era, when a golden generation of players exited the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in the last eight.
England is advancing in Russia after defending champion Germany was eliminated early and Argentina, Portugal and Spain went home in the round of 16.
Harry Kane gave England the lead with a penalty kick in the 57th minute. But as the game entered the third minute of stoppage time, Yerry Mina headed in an equalizer.
“To get knocked down at the end like we did, it’s difficult to come back from that,” Dier said. “But we were ready for that. We were calm. We stuck to our plan.”
England trailed 3-2 in the penalty shootout after Jordan Henderson’s shot was saved, but Mateus Uribe hit the bar and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford then saved Carlos Bacca’s kick.
Pickford succeeded where Peter Shilton, David Seaman and Paul Robinson failed as the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cup campaigns ended in shootout losses. On top of that, England was knocked out of the 1996 European Championship semifinals and the quarterfinals in 2004 and 2012 on penalties. The country’s only shootout success came earlier at Euro ’96.
SWEDEN 1, SWITZERLAND 0
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Emil Forsberg scored a deflected goal in the 66th minute to give the Swedes a 1-0 win over Switzerland on Tuesday and a place in the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in 24 years.