Having successfully navigated their way out of the group stage, England now found themselves in an unfamiliar position: confidently heading into the knockouts of a major tournament. But how far would our self-belief carry us? We were about to find out...
Game 4: England 1-1 Colombia (England win 4-3 on penalties)
Getting past Colombia would not be an easy proposition. In addition to a number of quality players (Falcao, James Rodriguez, Cuadrado), Colombia play their football with what is often charitably termed "physicality". I instead will refer to them as the third and final part of the World Cup Shithouse Trilogy. With James ruled out before the game through injury, Colombia clearly made the tactical decision to go with Plan B, which was to shut up shop and kick the crap out of anybody who tried to come in through the door. Yellow cards (6 in total) were shared carefully around the team as they kicked, headbutted and wrestled their way through the game. This actually suited England rather well; Harry Kane was gifted another penalty (which he clinically dispatched once again), and Colombia's goal threat was largely muted as they focused more on bogging the game down rather than coming out and attacking a relatively frail England defence which had failed to keep a clean sheet against Panama just a few days earlier. Staring defeat in the face, the Colombians eventually decided to come out and attack. Uribe's powerful effort brought out a fantastically acrobatic save from Jordan Pickford. It looked as though England were going to see out the game and progress confidently into the quarters. Then, in the 94th minute...
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Having been so effective at scoring from set pieces themselves, England were undone at the death by a header from a corner. It felt like a gut punch. The entire bar I was in let out a collective groan of despair, not just because of the heartbreaking nature of the equaliser but because of what would almost certainly be coming next: penalties. Prior to Russia 2018, England's record in penalty shootouts at major tournaments read "Played 7, Lost 6".
France '98: one of my earliest sporting heartbreaks. "Quickly Kevin, will he score?" [spoiler alert: he did not]
With this in mind, you can perhaps get some idea of the atmosphere once the penalty shootout got underway. The tension was so thick, you could've cut it with a butter knife. Kane and Rashford buried their pens, before it was Jordan Henderson's turn. I should have known something was up when he was doing keepy-uppys on the way to the penalty spot; after 120 minutes of football, you should know what the ball feels like. His penalty was weak and saved without too much trouble by Ospina. "Shit. This is how it ends", a dejected nation thought.
But all was not lost. Pickford had been twanging the bar during previous kicks, and on Colombia's fourth penalty it finally had the desired effect. Uribe blasted his penalty just over the bar instead of just under, and England were suddenly right back in it. The next Colombian pen was even more remarkable. Pickford leaped to his right, only to immediately see that the ball was heading to the center of the goal. With instinctive reflexes, he waved a hand back in the direction he had come and made the stop. Cue absolute bedlam.
A textbook Big Hand
The mathematics were simple: score our next penalty, and we would be through to the quarters. I confess that when I saw Eric Dier trudging forward to take the decisive pen, I was confused. Dier? Really? He was a defensive midfielder and hadn't exactly played that well at the World Cup. Nevertheless, he had the chance to send us into the quarter-finals. As he placed the ball on the spot, time slowed to a crawl. Holy shit holy shit holy shit.
YES!
As the ball nestled in the back of the net, pandemonium erupted. Immediately, a shower of lager misted over our heads, pints cast skywards by jubilant fans. Strangers hugged each other. I'm normally an anxious and timid individual, but I somehow found myself doing chest bumps with every single one of my friends. Several lads climbed on each others' shoulders as the chant went up: "Football's coming home". The party continued long afterwards, eventually spilling out onto the pavement where passing cars honked their horns in celebration. At that moment, it seemed like anything was possible.
Game 5: England 2-0 Sweden
We had done well to win our first World Cup knockout match since 2006, but if we were to avoid going out in the quarters then we'd first have to get past Sweden. They'd traditionally been somewhat of a bogey team for England in the past, leading to stalemates in both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
Although the 2006 game did yield one of my favourite England goals of all time. In the words of 2006-era Andy Gray, WHAT A HIT SON
Many (quite wrongly) saw this fixture as a bit of a freebie for England. Although Sweden might not have been the strongest team left in the tournament, they had more than earned their position in the quarter-finals on merit. In their group, they'd beaten Korea and Mexico, and come within a whisker of nicking a point from Germany too. They'd bested the Netherlands and Italy just to qualify for the tournament in the first place. Let's put it this way: they were no mugs. Would England be their next scalp?
Almost predictably, England opened the scoring with another header from a set-piece. This time it was Harry Maguire, who now had a goal of his own to cap off what had been an excellent tournament. He only had a handful of caps before the World Cup started, but you never would have guessed it from his assured presence on the ball. As well as being a danger from free kicks and corners, he often made great runs out from the back to relieve pressure from our defence and take the game to the opposition. Provided that he maintains his current form, he should be a guaranteed starter in tournaments to come.
Top-drawer bantz, too
Sterling was again in the strange position of simultaneously playing well and badly. His runs put all sorts of pressure on the Swedish defence and he created a number of goal scoring opportunities, only to fluff his lines or surrender possession at crucial moments. This was epitomised during one particular attack when he burst past the Swedish back line, controlled a long ball with a deft touch, and rounded the keeper within moments. However, instead of squaring it back to Kane for a routine finish, he tried to wind his way through covering defenders after his chance had gone, and ended up blazing his effort wide. Sterling had a good tournament overall, but was just missing a bit of extra quality to make him truly a game-changing player.
Frustration personified
Thankfully, Dele Alli made it 2-0 in the second half with a nicely worked move direct from the training ground. After that, England never looked back. We normally hold up to pressure in a World Cup game about as well as a sandcastle in an earthquake, but Southgate had seemed to instill a level-headed calmness in the squad. Though Sweden predictably came forward late in the game to try and fight their way back into it, Pickford was on fine form and produced a number of instinctive saves to keep his first clean sheet of the tournament.
A nation clenched.
Despite Sweden's late attempts, England never truly looked vulnerable. They continued to play their game and push back against the Swedes right up until the end. At the final whistle, there was euphoria. England had advanced to their first semi-final in nearly 30 years in the most unpredictable of fashions: a regulation 2-0 win. Could it really be coming home?
I recieved this meme literally minutes after the final whistle went
Game 6: England 1-2 Croatia
If England were to make it to a final, they'd have to get past Croatia. Perennial dark horses, for years Croatia have been a team that threatened to do something. Their centre midfield pairing of Modric and Rakitic was one of the best in the tournament, and they were surrounded by other brilliant players such as Mandzukic, Perisic, and-er- Dejan Lovren?
They can't all be world beaters, I guess
2018 was the tournament when Croatia finally seemed to realise their frightening potential. They took maximum points from their group, recording a 3-0 demolition of Argentina along the way.
BOSH
After the group stages, the Croatians grafted their way to the semi-finals through sheer hard work. They vanquished both Denmark and Russia after playing extra time and penalties. For lesser teams, this would have been mentally and physically exhausting, but Croatia seemed to approach every game knowing that there were very few countries in the world able to beat them in 90 minutes. Would England manage it?
The game started with a bang, as Trippier scored an absolute beauty of a free kick in the first five minutes.
Beckham-esque
While any goal is better than none, there is something to be said for the old football adage that the goal came 'too early' for England. Having to defend a lead for 85 minutes against a team who were almost guaranteed to create chances was no mean feat. It looked for most of the game we might hold on and do the unthinkable, but once Perisic nodded Croatia level it was difficult to see a way for England to crack on and win. Though Croatia had played 240 minutes of football in the previous week, it was England who seemed to be the more exhausted of the two sides- Harry Kane more so than most. When Mandzukic got goalside of Stones in the second half of extra time, the outcome was inevitable. England were out, and Croatia deserved winners.
There seems to be a false narrative going around (perpetuated mostly by Modric) that England were undone by their own hubris and that we had underestimated Croatia going into the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. For all the memes and chants that football was "Coming Home", the majority of the English fans and media had their tongues wedged firmly in their cheeks. We had almost expected to be absolutely terrible in this tournament, and the fact that had made it so far was nothing short of astonishing. Speaking for myself, there was never an expectation that England would win the World Cup- anything other than a group stage exit would've been fine by me.
An alternative 2014 timeline
Game 7: Belgium 2-0 England
There was only one more thing to do before leaving Russia; fulfill our contractual obligations by appearing in the third-place play-off, a game which Southgate rightfully describe after the final whistle as "not a game any team wants to play in".
Seeing as the match was an absolute afterthought, I shan't go into it in depth. Suffice to say that Belgium showed that they were, in fact, a better team than us (which we knew already), and ran out with a comfortable 2-0 win.
Post-mortem While things ended on a bit of dampener, it didn't change the fact that England had vastly surpassed expectations. Arguably their biggest achievement wasn't necessarily the results themselves, but changing the mood of the public towards our national team. In prior tournaments, it felt like we were watching Premier League superstars (Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, etc) who were normally world-beaters for their clubs, but always seemed disinterested when they showed up for England and were far less than the sum of their parts. This was perhaps epitomised by the 2006 World Cup, where there seemed to be far more of a national conversation about what the wives and girlfriends of the players were up to rather than how the team themselves were getting on.
If you were wondering, they were busy losing to Portugal on penalties
In contrast, our 2018 squad seemed far more humble and professional, perhaps due to the assertive but understated leadership of Gareth Southgate. I admit that I didn't think he'd be the shot in the arm that England needed, but he more than showed his worth at this tournament.
And rocking a trademark M and S waistcoat while he did it
The mood that overtook the country was one of giddy delirium; England were playing well and winning games. That was all we'd ever wanted at a tournament! Don't get me wrong, the nation would have gone into absolute meltdown if we had somehow won the World Cup, but I think I speak for most fans when I say that we were ecstatic to have gone as far as we did. Unlike other nationalities, the English have never really been about winning at all costs; we're happy to go down in noble failure, just as long as we give a good account of ourselves and do our best. And this time, we actually bloody did.
