A giant leap for England
Euphoria grips country in wake of historic win over Sweden
SAMARA: England celebrated reaching the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in a generation.
Gareth Southgate’s young team swept Sweden aside 2-0, sparking scenes of unconfined joy in London and elsewhere as World Cup fever reached new heights with the country sweltering in a summer heatwave.
“Cancel your plans for Wednesday night — England have reached their first World Cup semi-final in nearly 30 years,” said the Sun yesterday.
“The dream goes on! England in ecstasy,” trumpeted the Mail On Sunday.
Leicester defender Harry Maguire headed England ahead in the first half and Tottenham’s Dele Alli added a second just before the hour as Southgate’s team enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in Samara.
Man-of-the-match Jordan Pickford made three outstanding saves to keep Sweden at bay, further burnishing a reputation that has grown throughout the tournament.
“It’s a great achievement for the team, we owed it to the fans back home who believed in us,” said Alli.
“It’s always nice to score, especially on occasions like this. It’s an amazing feeling to be going to a semi-final at a World Cup.”
Captain Harry Kane, who leads the goalscoring charts in Russia with six strikes, failed to find the net for the first time but said confidence was high after England posted their best run at a major tournament since Euro 96.
“We’re buzzing. We know there is still a big game ahead, but we’re feeling really good,” he said.
Prince William, the president of the Football Association, praised Southgate’s men.
“You wanted to make history @England and you are doing just that,” he tweeted. “This has been an incredible #WorldCup run and we’ve enjoyed every minute. You deserve this moment — Football’s Coming Home!”
Even if Southgate’s team reach the final, William will not attend the match because of Britain’s diplomatic boycott of the World Cup in Russia over a nerve agent attack in England this year.
“We looked composed,” said Kane as England now prepare for a semi-final against Croatia on Wednesday. “We looked like we controlled the game.”
The 1966 World Cup champions last reached the semi-finals in 1990, losing the first of a series of haunting penalty shootouts. In 2014, the team didn’t even make it out of the group stage.
Yet the performances of Southgate’s squad are being celebrated wildly back home. Even at Wimbledon, the home of lawn tennis, updates of England’s goals were spread by fans watching or listening to the match on their cell phones.
“I know the fans here are enjoying it,” Kane added. “The fans at home, I’m sure we’ll see some videos of them enjoying it.”
The chant of “On our way, on our way, to Moscow, on our way” came from England fans in one corner of the Samara Arena throughout the match.
It proved to be a match too far for the Swedes, who advanced further than they ever did with Zlatan Ibrahimovic — the team’s star for more than a decade — by being compact and hard to break down. That helped them win a two-leg play-off against Italy to get to the World Cup, top a group containing Germany, and then beat Switzerland in the round of 16.
They began solidly against England in a slow and sloppy start to the game that resembled a pre-season friendly at times, only to be outdone by a goal Sweden aren’t used to conceding.
“Up until that corner, I felt that we had everything under control,” Sweden coach Janne Andersson said. “I felt that we had the match in our hands.”
Although Sweden rallied in the final 30 minutes, forcing two good saves from Pickford, England comfortably held on.