QUARTER-FINALS
England 2-4 France
Sterling 8’
Mbappé 17'
Griezmann 26'
Mbappé 54'
Antonio 83'
Giroud 86'
Eamonn Foster
Gazprom Arena, St Petersburg, Russia
Friday 3rd July
Twenty-four years ago, having just missed the decisive penalty in the shootout against Germany, a young and distraught Gareth Southgate was consoled on the Wembley pitch by more senior teammates like Paul Gascoigne and Stuart Pearce. His progression into an adept coach and something of a mentor for young footballers in the subsequent years culminated in the poignant images of him consoling his sad England players on their pitch after their defeat in the 2018 World Cup semi-final against Croatia; the consoled had become the consoler. However, contrary to popular opinion, it does not have to end in consolatory embraces every time for Southgate and England. So when it was announced that the latter stages of Euro 2020 would be played in London at Wembley, there was talk of Euros redemption and for the briefest of moments the usually sober Southgate allowed himself a rare moment of childlike giddiness as he imagined Wembley glory.
However, this year at least, there is to be no Wembley redemption for Southgate and England, having had their dreams shattered once again on Russian soil. This time around their conquerors were the world champions France, whose confidence and star quality ultimately outshone an earnest but, at key moments, inferior England side.
Speaking to the television cameras only twenty minutes before kick-off, Gareth Southgate envisioned a measured and mature display from his side however the match started at breakneck speed. Blaise Matuidi and Jordan Henderson engaged in an early barging contest after the former clipped the latter’s heels and Pogba reacted angrily to a rather forcefully contested header from his Manchester United captain Harry Maguire. James Maddison slid into a tackle by the dugout with a little more gusto than was probably called for, but which delighted the English fans in the stands. Deschamps’ side protested, appearing somewhat thrown by the English exuberance. Instead of protesting, though, the French could have done with organizing themselves better for a long diagonal ball over the top from Trent Alexander-Arnold into the path of the oncoming left-back Ben Chilwell who sumptuously clipped the ball first-time into the centre where Harry Kane, with his usual penalty area aggression, pounced and fired a header low and hard past French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. After an initial outpouring of delight, punching his chest, Kane made the more calculated gesture of cupping his ear towards the stands and the nearest television camera.
Despite Southgate’s insistence that it is irrelevant to his team’s preparations, much has been made of Harry Kane’s surely-imminent £100 million move to Manchester United. As England left their hotel base to go training yesterday, Kane himself even snapped at a reporter who asked if he was worth such a fee by saying, “If I was Spanish you wouldn’t challenge it”. Apart from reiterating his respect for Kane’s goalscoring and leadership talents, Southgate would not be drawn into commenting on the accuracy or intelligence of his captain’s remark. However, both the English and the international press, divided in sympathies, have not held back.
Some would call it karma for Kane’s comment, then, when the players were alerted to an imminent VAR check which resulted in the annulment of England’s goal and the awarding of a free-kick to the French after video replays showed what could only really be Chilwell’s fringe to be offside by a matter of millimetres. The English players protested in vain. Meanwhile, across Europe, millions watching on who are more inclined towards engaging in a little Schadenfreude- a feeling the English tend to inspire on the international stage- chuckled at England’s expense.
The lucky break for the French was not enough to help them find their feet in the next five minutes, however. England, still eager to make their early energy count on the scoreboard, kept the French side on the back foot. Alexander-Arnold and Chilwell continued to roam forwards and play cross-field balls that had the French defence all at sea. It was quick thinking from Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford which led to the game’s legitimate opener after just eight minutes. As Alexander-Arnold led another charge down England’s right flank, on the left Sterling darted inside and dragged Benjamin Pavard inside with him which allowed Marcus Rashford to drop back into the space, placing him perfectly for Alexander-Arnold’s slightly overhit cross. Rashford controlled the ball with his chest and with his second side-footed the ball across the face of goal to Sterling, who was too quick for both Pavard and Raphael Varane and managed to stab the ball past Lloris from close range. This time England were ahead.
The English lead was to last only ten minutes before Kylian Mbappé reminded everybody that he was playing, too. Pogba, leading France on an attack through the middle of the pitch dribbling with long strides that Declan Rice, preferred today in place of the more attacking-minded Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, could not keep up with. As Jordan Pickford in the England goal braced himself for Pogba to let loose from thirty yards, Pavard called for the ball on the right-hand side and was duly played in by the Manchester United man. A first-time cross from Pavard found Mbappé who had hung back on the edge of the penalty area awaiting the cross. What followed was the most emphatic of volleys from the French prodigy as the ball flew into the roof of the net above the reach of the helpless Pickford. Southgate looked at the ground, aware of the enormity of the challenge of at least eighty more minutes against the world champions.
Just as two goals in two minutes undid the work of a talented Portugal side last week, the French very nearly repeated the trick today when a low Matuidi drive just seconds after the restart whistled past the post and out for a goal-kick. Maguire and Henderson barked instructions at Rice and Maddison, giving the impression that the French onslaught was a problem of the youngsters’ making.
As it turned out, France’s second goal was a problem of England’s making- though from none of the players mentioned above. This time it was a mix-up between Rashford and Pickford in the 26th minute. Rashford, keen to help his teammates out as the French gathered momentum, dispossessed his United teammate Pogba just inside his own half and facing his own goal, saw the yellow figure of his goalkeeper Pickford offering himself as an outlet. Rashford accepted the option and played the ball back towards his goalkeeper. What he hadn’t seen- with an eerie similarity to what a young Steven Gerrard also hadn’t seen in injury time of what was to be England’s defeat to France in Euro 2004- was Mbappé, who, just like Thierry Henry sixteen years ago, was waiting on the shoulder of the English centre-halves and was quick enough to react to and intercept the naive backpass from the Englishman. In 2004, Henry was felled by David James and Zinedine Zidane scored the penalty to give the French a late 2-1 win. Today, Mbappé was too quick to even be floored by the desperate Pickford. However, as he rounded the Everton goalkeeper the angle was a little difficult even for Mbappé and as his momentum took him right towards the byline he was smart enough to square for his teammate and ever-dependable Antoine Griezmann, who made no mistake putting the ball in the back of the net from five yards. 2-1 France.
Southgate’s side worked hard to get back into the match but struggled to get near the French half for the remainder of the first half. Maguire came close from a corner and Alexander-Arnold tried his luck from range. The French, though, saw the majority of the ball and will have welcomed the chance to keep hold of the ball and do less hard running than in the opening stages.
Things were to get worse for England pretty quickly in the second half. This time it was Rice who was caught being a little slow to move the ball and he was punished by N’Golo Kanté, who nicked the ball and played the ball out to Griezmann who had the speed of thought to play the ball in behind the English defence into the path of- you guessed it- Mbappé. Mbappé had the advantage of being goalside of Alexander-Arnold and was too fast to be bothered by the advances of Harry Maguire and as he approached Pickford one faint to the left was enough for him to send the goalkeeper the wrong way and allow him to round the keeper for the second time in the match. This time he had ample space to send the ball home and claim his second goal of the day.
The next twenty minutes seemed to fly by as time rapidly ran out for the team in white. Perhaps it was the nature of France’s goals, each one leaving at least a couple of England players on the floor, and all of them stunned, which had left England with the sense that they were already beaten. Harry Kane had not looked like scoring since his disallowed goal in the second minute, prompting ironic chants of ‘Vardy!’ and ‘Vardy for England’ to ring out from some sections of the English support. As has now been well-documented, despite the Leicester City forward’s remarkable tally of 27 goals this Premier League season, and his eagerness to return to the national setup if called upon, Southgate chose to ignore the possibility of bringing Vardy back into the fold and instead preferred Mason Greenwood and Jadon Sancho. It was hard not to wonder how the French defence would have fared with Vardy running at it today. Until the 75th minute England were unable to really test Lloris in the French goal in the second half.
It took a double substitution to help change that miserable fact for England: Oxlade-Chamberlain replaced Maddison and West Ham’s Michail Antonio, an unlikely debutant at thirty years old and only called in as a last-minute replacement for Harry Winks. Whilst the decision to call Antonio up raised eyebrows in some quarters, his fine form in the final two months of the season was vital to West Ham avoiding relegation and his versatility is always welcome in tournament football- even if his campaign, and probably his England career, has sadly been limited to these fifteen minutes in Saint Petersburg.
But you can only take advantage of the opportunities presented to you and Antonio did just that shortly after coming on and in the process gave England a lifeline and dreams of a comeback with a fine goal with ten minutes remaining. Antonio, who normally likes to inject some humour into his goal celebrations, knew that this was not the time nor the place and grabbed the ball from the back of the net before sprinting back to the halfway line and rallying his England teammates. It felt like a sort of energy which in the final third would have been welcome at more points in this campaign given the way players like Rashford, Sterling, Kane and Maddison have all seemed to plod along quietly with their own game much more than visibly rousing their teammates.
The goalscorer Antonio came close to becoming the saviour Antonio a couple of minutes later when a diving header from a Chilwell cross went narrowly wide. The 67,000 inside the Gazprom Arena held their breath. France breathed relief.
The tie was to be put to bed and England condemned to elimination a couple of minutes later, however, by the Premier League’s very own Olivier Giroud, who had had a largely quiet game in the centre-forward position but put the sweetest of cherries on top for the French when he made it 4-2 with five minutes left. A French counter-attack on the back of an under-hit Sterling cross saw Pogba, Mbappé, Griezmann and Giroud running at just Chilwell and Joe Gomez. The team in blue took advantage of their numerical advantage by switching the ball further to the right in a manner more reminiscent of a rugby attack. The final recipient was Giroud, who cut the ball back onto his left foot and curled the ball in cavalier fashion into the far top corner. The French ran off in celebration; the English dropped to the floor.
So now, for both teams, it is off to London. The key difference of course is that England’s players will then disperse and return home wondering what might have been, whilst the French team march on, very much together, with a semi-final against either Italy or Sweden awaiting.
Man of the Match: Kylian Mbappé