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.
After a jaw-dropping month of football, Russia 2018 is all over.
Things didn't look so auspicious in the run-up. Most of the talk about the upcoming tournament wasn't so much about the football as Russia's notorious problems with football hooliganism and racism, and the Russian national team themselves were the lowest-ranked hosts in the history of the tournament. Take THAT, 2010 South African squad! To rub salt in the wound, the opening game saw the hosts face off against Saudi Arabia; two countries arguably more well-known for their human rights abuses than silky, free-flowing football.
A criticism expressed by Britain's highest-ranking diplomat at the opening ceremony.
That opening game was the first hint that something special was underway. Admittedly, my own hopes were so low that I spent the afternoon playing pool whilst keeping half an eye on a flatscreen in the corner. The game soon caught the attention. Saudi Arabia might have been just as bad as everyone had feared (indeed, they were even worse), but Russia played some cracking football, typified by Cheryshev's lovely curled dink on the outside of his left boot.
Russia ran out 5-0 winners, and things were suddenly looking pretty interesting. The real litmus test would be the first group stage heavyweight bout the following evening: Spain vs Portugal. To be honest, clashes between big teams in the first round of games (particularly if they're neighbours) tend to fizzle out into cagey, dull affairs. Both sides will usually play within themselves and are perfectly content to walk away with a 0-0 draw and avoid an embarrassing defeat, rather than gamble national pride on a victory. I went to the local pub with my mates more out of hope than expectation. How wrong I was...
Cristiano Ronaldo, current Ballon d'Or holder and the world's foremost narcissist, did what he does best and took the game by the scruff of the neck. Portugal were going for the win, whether they actually wanted to or not. Scoring in the first minute, Ronaldo then benefited from a rare David De Gea mistake before completing his hat-trick with a sumptuous free kick. This was a little inconvenient personally, as I'd spent the preceding two minutes telling anyone who'd listen just how (relatively) bad Ronaldo was at free kicks, and this effort would probably end up well in the stands. I was slightly wrong.
It wasn't all one-way traffic, however. Spain gave as good as they got, and arguably should have won the game. Diego Costa was an absolute beast, and his first goal was as good as he gets; not so much kicking the ball into the net as bulldozing his way through the Portuguese defense before picking out a finish that only he could see. However, the goal of the game belonged to Nacho, whose hit could charitably be described as "not bad for a second-string defender"
It was at the full-time whistle in this game that I fully realised things were about to kick off. The rest of the group stage games saw a number of heavyweights stumbling: Brazil opened with a draw before scoring two injury-time goals to see off Costa Rica, Germany lost their opening game to Mexico, and Argentina were dangling by a thread after drawing 1-1 with Iceland and being battered 3-0 by Croatia.
Even in this, there was drama. A narrow win against Nigeria saw the Argentines go through, and Germany looked as though they'd completed a similar turnaround after a last-gasp winner against a difficult Sweden side. Naturally, I'd been cheering on the Swedes and was ecstatic to see them go into the break with a slender 1-0 lead, but the Germans played their way back into contention, scoring an equaliser early in the second half before robbing winning the game in the seventh minute of injury time. The Germans were typically understated in their victory, and the defeat felt almost as crushing as seeing England lose at the death.
As soon as this free kick was given, you knew it was ending up in the back of the net
Whilst most of the titans rediscovered their form to limp through to the knockouts, Group F held one final twist. Germany needed a result against South Korea but struggled to make a breakthrough. In injury time, the ball fell improbably to the previously unfancied Kim Young-gwon in the German penalty area. Cool as a cucumber, he took a touch before roofing it into the German net, only to see the linesman disallow the goal for offside. Not for the first time in the tournament, the decision went to the video referee. The VAR showed that the goal was indeed legitimate, and wild celebrations ensued amongst the Korean squad (and in my living room). Chasing the game, Manuel Neuer threw himself up the pitch, only to yield possession and see Tottenham's Son Heung-min roll the ball calmly into an empty net. Germany finished bottom of the group. Korea also went home, but Mexico showed their deep gratitude towards their Korean brothers-in-arms.
It was a rollicking finish to the group stages, and things would soon heat up further in the knockout round. The very first game here was France vs Argentina, a fixture that is known in the business as a spicy meatball.
In the event, it proved to be even spicier than anybody could have anticipated. I was at a wedding that day, and it seemed as though every time we had a cheeky clandestine look at our phones to check the score, another goal had gone in. France came from 2-1 down to run out 4-3 winners, thanks in part to this absolute banger of a goal from the French full-back Pavard:
Warning: this goal is not suitable for viewers under the age of 18
Though it hurts me to give any credit to the Argentinians- especially after they essentially staged a coup against their own manager- they battled valiantly and could have won late on. At least Angel Di Maria went home with another cracker for the highlight reel.
Indeed, the first two days of knockout football were an absolute bloodbath. Ronaldo's Portugal soon followed Messi's Argentina out of the tournament, and the Spanish were soon to follow. Perhaps demonstrating why it is generally thought of as unwise to sack your manager just days before the start of a major tournament, Spain looked pedestrian and short of ideas as they struggled to break down a Russian team who were up for a fight and tough as nails, much like their frankly terrifying manager.
Stoic, or psychopath?
Following on from the earlier disappointment of Sweden vs Germany, there was to be another non-England related World Cup heartbreak for me. For some reason, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Japanese; perennial WC underdogs, they play tight technical football and always put up a good fight. Against the highly-fancied Belgian team spearheaded by Hazard, Lukaku, and De Bruyne, the Japanese team deservedly found themselves 2-0 up thanks to some crisp passing and well-applied pressure. It was too good to last. After Vertonghen improbably lobbed the keeper with a crossed header, and human wrecking ball Marouane Fellaini rose to power in an equaliser. It looked to be heading to penalties, when a surging Belgian break swept from one end of the field to the other before being calmly slotted home by West Brom's very own Nacer Chadli. Take that, Radja Naiinggolan. It was a cruel blow for the Japanese team and their impeccably behaved supporters, who went home with nothing but their reputation for being absolutely lovely people.
Japan, you are too pure for this world.
The quarterfinals went much as you'd expect, with the highlight being Belgium's victory over Brazil. Whilst the Brazilians had been much fancied before the tournament, the team had become known for Neymar's theatrics as much as anything else. This was not only incredibly embarrassing for Neymar personally, but also absolutely infuriating for football fans around the world. The World Cup is a high profile event that draws in casual viewers by the millions, and when a player of Neymar's caliber rolls around on the floor like a toddler having a tantrum in the supermarket, it makes the sport as a whole look like a joke. In the event, he failed to have an impact in the QF and Belgium duly sent the Brazilians packing. It was a real shame, as the Brazilians failed to live up to the pre-tournament hype and uphold their reputation as a nation that plays with flair, energy and a smile on its face.
Incidentally, this is my favourite picture from the entire World Cup. I want to have it framed so I can display it in my study. Divine.
On to the semi-finals, which saw France finally find a way to blunt the rapier-like attack of Belgium to advance as 1-0 winners. Solid in defence and conservative in attack, it was a textbook semi-final performance. Croatia too deservedly won their semi-final (discussion to follow in a later England-centric post). France vs Croatia wasn't a final many would have predicted before the start of the tournament, but it went some way to demonstrating just what a wild ride it had been.
In many ways, the final itself was as bonkers as the preceding month of football. Please excuse the liberal usage of block caps in my highlights below, but it really was that sort of game:
1) The opening goal was an OG, the first ever scored in the World Cup final. Incidentally, the top scorers at the World Cup were:
3rd = Griezman, Lukaku, Cheryshev, Ronaldo, Mbappe (4 each)
2nd= Kane (6)
1st= Own Goals (12)
MENTAL.
2) Cool as liquid nitrogen infused cucumber, Perisic took a touch in the box before unleashing an absolute BANGER of an equaliser.
3) VAR was used to award the harshest of penalties. Whilst I personally think it's been a great resource in this tournament (see the Korea vs Germany game), I felt that this particular incidence was more of a case of ball to hand.
4) Hugo Lloris tried to dummy Mandzukic in a WORLD CUP FINAL, and got exactly what he deserved.
5) Goals! This final had as many goals as the previous four finals combined. As a neutral, this is just what I wanted (although probably not what the Croatians were looking for).
While it would have been nice to see the Croatian underdogs win the World Cup for the first time (especially as this could be the last WC for some of their more experienced players), France were the deserved winners and capped off what had been an absolutely extraordinary tournament.
