Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Harry’s game
GLOVELY stuff, boys! England roared into the semi-finals of the World Cup yesterday for the first time in 28 long years.
Two great saves from keeper Jordan Pickford and goals from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli sent fans wild as Gareth Southgate’s men beat Sweden 2-0.
The manager and his brave Three Lions then celebrated in front of 5,000 England fans in Samara, Russia.
Southgate loved every minute as the England anthem Three Lions rang out. And, fittingly, The Beatles’ hit All You Need Is Love played as the manager hugged each and every one of his players.
Bookies now have England as 5-2 second favourites to win the World Cup next Sunday.
But first they will face Croatia in Moscow on Wednesday night.
Astonishingly, goalscorer Maguire travelled to the Euros in France just two year ago as a fan.
CHORUS
Now he, Alli, Pickford – and the whole team, come to that – are England heroes.
Fans lapped it up after the match and belted out the chorus as the Three Lions song played.
And now, after more than 50 years of hurt, they can really believe that Football’s Coming Home.
Amid the emotional scenes, Southgate “conducted” the fans – just as he did after the win over Colombia.
Captain Harry Kane went into the stands to embrace family and friends.
For the first time in the tournament England fans outnumbered the opposition as just 1,000 Swedes were among the 40,000 crowd.
Flags representing clubs up and down the country were flying, including one poignant one from Ipswich Town supporters.
It paid tribute to Sir Alf and Sir Bobby – Ramsey and Robson, England’s greatest ever World Cup managers.
Now Southgate will join the special “club” as one of only three England managers to take their nation to the semi-finals of a World Cup.
Rebekah Vardy, wife of England sub Jamie, led a team of WAGs in the stands and joined the celebrations with the players afterwards.
Defender Kyle Walker tweeted a picture of Harry Maguire chatting with his girlfriend Fern Hawkins pitch-side after the game. He jokily captioned it: “Yeah so a good header doesn’t hurt. I mean the moment you head it proper, you feel it’s a good one. Know what I mean love?”
Inside the Cosmos arena in Samara, fans were cockahoop.
Steve Cowans, 61, who made the 2,500-mile journey from Solihull, West Midlands, said: “What a fantastic performance. That was absolutely amazing. I didn’t think anything could beat the Colombia match but this did.
TEARS
“There will be some vodka drank in Samara tonight that’s for sure.”
Steve Cowles and wife Liz, from Nuneaton, Warks, have been to every game and will spend another week in Russia. Steve said: “We are so proud of this team. It’s great to follow them.”
Ian Whitehorn, 42, who used to live in the same street as Sheffield-born defender Walker when he was growing up, was in tears.
He said: “I have been to so many quarter-finals when we did not make it through. I was there when we were beaten by Portugal and even Iceland last time around, so this was so sweet.”
Phil Robinson, of Buxton, Derbys, is a big fan of Harry Maguire and said: “He gave a great performance.”
Father and son Neil and Joseph Chapman, of Richmond, South West
London, will fly back to England but vowed to return for the semi. Neil, 55, who works for the Treasury, added: “Is it now Sir Gareth? Six months ago nobody seemed sure about him and now he is absolutely adored.”
Kennet Berg, the father of Sweden striker
Marcus, shook hands and enjoyed a drink with England supporters.
The 55-year-old artist lives close to Stockholm and had joked the Swedes would “eat England up”. But
he smiled: “I was only joking. I do love England.” While our fans were over the moon, the bookmakers are heading for a £3million caning.
England were priced as a 16-1 longshot before the tournament began but are now as short as 5-2 to lift the trophy. And bookies could take a double hammering if Harry Kane lifts the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top goalscorer. He has six goals to his name so far.
William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly said yesterday: “We’ve lost over half a million quid on the game and we still have a huge liability on England actually winning the World Cup. Despite this, though, we are absolutely ecstatic. It’s coming home!”
The BBC also scored something of an own goal yesterday.
Many fans were unable to celebrate in real time after the iPlayer crashed for the final minutes of the game.
The live stream cut off and frustrated viewers were left with a message telling them an unknown error had occurred.
The Beeb said: “We’re aware that some people were experiencing technical issues and are looking into the cause. We apologise to anyone who was affected.”