HURRIKANE SLAYS UKRAINE
England roar into semis as captain leads rout in Rome
IN AN evening of magic in the sultry heat of the Stadio Olimpico, England turned their first and only trip away from Wembley at Euro 2021 into an enchanted Roman holiday that carried them back to England full of dreams that footballing immortality awaits them.
After they swept Ukraine aside 4-0 with a dazzling display of brilliant football to move into their second successive semifinal, they know that only two matches stand between them and a first trophy in a major tournament for 56 years.
Denmark, a team riding a wave of emotion, await them on Wednesday night. If England get past that, they will face Spain or Italy in the final.
England were irresistible last night. Harry Kane scored twice, Harry Maguire added another and Jordan Henderson headed his first goal for his country. There were outstanding performances from Luke Shaw and Raheem Sterling in particular.
But the whole team played as if they were possessed by a belief that this is their moment. This was their seventh successive game without conceding a goal, a national record.
And so, a quarter of a century after he missed a penalty at Wembley in a European Championship semifinal, Gareth Southgate is heading back to try to set things right. After England beat Germany last week, Southgate said he still thought about the teammates he felt he had let down in 1996. Last night in Rome was another step in his road to redemption, another leap in England’s quest for release from the failures of the past.
Anything seems possible now. Maybe it really is coming home. A tournament that has danced all over Europe is returning to England for its finale and it will be accompanied by a wave of fervour from the country that we will not have seen since the London Olympics and Euro 96.
It feels as if the fear and apprehension that so often haunts England players has melted away to be replaced by excitement and an eagerness to excel.
And as the fear fades, the division that settled around the team is fading, too, and the squabbles about taking the knee and team selection are disappearing. Nights like last night have a habit of uniting us all.
The last time England came to the Italian capital needing a result was in October 1997, when Glenn Hoddle’s side — their goal protected by the forcefield that the manager’s faith-healer Eileen Drewery had erected around it — secured the dogged 0-0 draw with Italy needed to qualify for the World Cup in France the following year.
This time, England were seeking to win a tournament, not just qualify for it. Southgate had rejected the suggestion made by Jose Mourinho and others that he should rest Maguire, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice and protect them from the possibility of getting a second yellow card and missing a semifinal that England hadn’t yet qualified for. As Southgate recognised, that kind of thinking has undone England before.
‘We have been to three major semi-finals in 60 years,’ the England manager said. ‘The thought that we could be resting players — I can’t think of a nation that would do that and I don’t remember a nation doing that.’
So Maguire, Phillips and Rice were all in the starting line-up. So, too, was Jadon Sancho. The quest to get Sancho into the first XI had become almost as much of a cause celebre as the clamour for Jack Grealish to be elevated from a place on the bench.
Regular watchers of the Bundesliga, in particular, have been scandalised by Sancho’s omission. A minor injury to Bukayo Saka gave him his chance to shine at last.
Southgate also abandoned the back three that had worked so beautifully against Germany and a reverted to a back four, which meant Kieran Trippier dropping to the bench and Mason Mount being recalled after his Covid-induced exile for spending too much time in the Wembley tunnel after the Scotland game with his Chelsea teammate Billy Gilmour.
Mount thought he had won a penalty three minutes into the game when he was tripped in the box. The referee waved play on but it was a short reprieve for Ukraine.
A minute later, Sterling cut in from the left and danced past two challenges before slipping a brilliant pass into the path of Kane. Clean through, Kane stretched to reach the ball ahead of Georgiy Bushchan and even though his toepoke clipped the goalkeeper’s chest,
it nestled in the back of the net.
What a start. It almost felt disconcerting. England have rarely done things the easy way but here was more vindication for the faith that Southgate showed in his captain in the face of fierce criticism earlier in the tournament.
Here, too, was more evidence for the case that Sterling is England’s best player at this tournament.
Ukraine took time to recover but they were nearly presented with a way back into the match by some uncharacteristically sloppy England defending.
Maguire sold Kyle Walker short with an underhit pass and Walker compounded the error by misjudging his pass back to John Stones. Roman Yaremchuk pounced on it and ran at Stones, making enough space for a shot that Jordan Pickford shovelled behind for a corner.
The game grew more attritional as the heat sapped the players’ energy but Sterling was tormenting Ukraine’s defence. Just after the half hour, he weaved his way to the goalline again and cut the ball back. It fell to Rice who he unleashed a piledriver that flew at Bushchan like a rocket. It was all the Ukraine goalkeeper could do to get his fists in front of his face and batter it away.
Sancho was playing well, too. One mesmerising dribble got the spectators off their seats and he was finding space intelligently.
But Andriy Shevchenko’s team looked more and more dangerous as half-time approached. They targeted England’s right side relentlessly and Yaremchuk started to make life uncomfortable for Walker.
Oleksandr Zinchenko also became more influential and in the closing minutes of the half, another Ukraine incursion ended with Mykola Shaparenko slicing wide.
Yet a minute after the interval, England were further ahead. Kane was fouled by Serhiy Sydorchuk on the left flank and Luke Shaw curled in the perfect free kick to the edge of the six-yard box. Maguire ran in, leapt high and powered a thundering header past Bushchan.
Four minutes later, England were in dreamland. Shaw, again, burst down the left on the overlap and clipped a lovely cross into the box where Kane was waiting. The captain rose unchallenged and nodded his header down so precisely it went through the legs of the startled Bushchan.
Shaw was playing brilliantly. He has been transformed under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United, the latest example of a player who suffered under Mourinho yet thrived when free of him. There was a neat irony in the fact that Shaw was playing like this in the Stadio Olimpico, the arena that Mourinho will now call home as the manager of Roma.
Midway through the second half, England went further ahead.
Kane had a stunning left-footed volley brilliantly saved by the keeper Bushchan but Mount swung in the corner and it was met by a superb run and header from Jordan Henderson, just on for Rice.
It was his first goal for his country in his 62nd cap.