A cruel exit that will linger in the memory
Defeat leaves England to ponder what could have been
THERE are no good ways to lose a World Cup quarter-final. There are just varying degrees of desolation. And yet there are particularly cruel exits, the kind that echo down the decades as potential moments in time when, but for this or that, glorious events might have unfolded.
England have plenty of those in their history. Now they have another.
What might Qatar 2022 have been for a superbly-talented group of players who looked to be coming into their prime and growing in confidence with every step? Might they have navigated a semi-final against Morocco to reach a first World Cup final since 1966?
They are agonising questions that will be debated ten years hence and never fully answered. They are as painful for all connected with England as the hope that soared in that last moment when the net fluttered from Marcus Rashford’s free-kick, what we all knew to be the last kick of the game. For a millisecond, a thousand hearts also fluttered with that net. But the reality was the shot was over, the top of the net had been disturbed but not the goalkeeper.
So for now, England are flying home and Gareth Southgate may well have served his time as national coach because Harry Kane missed a penalty that would have broken Wayne Rooney’s goalscoring record. Southgate knows that kind of pain, imparting comforting words as he embraced his captain at the end.
That moment in time came on 82 minutes when, after a lengthy VAR review, Kane stepped up for his second penalty of the night. It was surely the least likely scenario England would have anticipated as a potential heartbreaker. Earlier in the week, Southgate has said that there’s no one in the world he would prefer in that situation. That remains true today, even after Kane sent his penalty high over the bar.
It was the moment that drained the hope and the prospect of glory from England. There was still, of course, time to play. There was Rashford and Jack Grealish to come on. And there were hopeful crosses. But until Rashford’s free-kick, there wasn’t much. And anyone with a passing knowledge of football knows that such turning points are decisive in World Cup quarterfinals. And here was one the sucked the air from England’s lungs.
There were bitter twists throughout this game, however. It was as though the French were mocking their crossChannel rivals. After all the Kylian Mbappe talk, all the fears of French flair and technique, in the end it was a good old-fashioned cross and a near-post header from an old friend of the Premier League, Olivier Giroud, that was to be England’s downfall.
It was a goal made in England, the kind you will see at Accrington
Stanley on a cold dark afternoon in Lancashire. We just weren’t expecting it on the edge of the desert in Qatar.
This wasn’t the only irony, however. It came after England had done that thing it is often said they can’t do. Against a top-level midfield, they were more than holding their own. They were playing with increasing confidence. They looked not France’s equals. They looked possibly their betters in that second half.
Bukayo Saka was giving Theo Hernandez the kind of evenings leftbacks despair over. Jude Bellingham’s precocious authority was growing. England looked the better team.
England had done their homework on Mbappé and were aware of the goal threat from Antoine Griezmann and Giroud. But no one had really factored in Aurelien Tchouameni breaching their defence. Goals aren’t really his thing. This was his first of the season and he’s only scored once for France before. But
there he was, lurking, a goal seemingly improbable given the number of England players in front him. No matter, he found a way through Bellingham’s legs and past Jordan Pickford on 17 minutes.
The problem with France, from an English perspective, is that they always have a solution to any problem. Lose Ballon D’Or winner Karim Benzema and there’s Giroud; N’Golo Kante is unfit but instead you have one of the best young holding midfielders in the world in Tchouameni. He covered spaces even England weren’t aware they might pass into and set the tempo for the early France attacks and then for the rearguard action in the second part of the half.
Like two fighters circling each other, the teams nervously probed each other, France initially with the initiative but then, rather like England have done in crucial games having taken the lead, they eased off. England seized the initiative. Patience, though, has been a virtue for them here in Qatar. When England look slow, it generally has been because they’re brewing something up.
The clue was in the 52nd minute when Jordan Henderson played a lovely ball inside for Saka to run at. He beat his man, strode away and got to the byeline. France were in disarray but Saka drilled his shot into Dayet Upamecano. But two minutes later there was another exchange of passes and this time Saka was away, threading his way into the box. Once there, he is a menace to defenders and Tchouameni couldn’t resist poking a leg out to stop his progress. The penalty was duly awarded.
Referee Wilton Sampaio blew his whistle. There was a delay. Kane stopped to pull hs socks up. He was starting the whole preparation routine again. It felt inauspicious. But England did not need to worry on this occasion. Kane’s penalty was powerfully stuck into the left-hand corner of the net, Spurs team-mate Hugo Lloris falling in he opposite direction.
The doubts of the first half were beginning to recede. Not only Saka but now Foden, quiet in the opening 45 minutes, was running at players, drawing fouls. Saka took off a few minutes later and you could sense the hesitancy in the French defenders, edging backwards, unwilling to risk the challenge as he shot and drew the save from Lloris. Even the set-pieces now looked polished, Henderson’s free-kick on 70 minutes met by Harry Maguire and brushing off the post.
This England taking the game to France wasn’t one we were used to. By the end, though, it was back to the familiar. That England. The one the leaves you wondering.
They didn’t just look equals. They possibly looked better in the second half