In all honesty, one can understand the pre-tournament hype surrounding England prior to the start of the European Championships.
England’s alpha dog in attack, captain and elite center forward, Harry Kane, scored 44 goals in 45 appearances for Bayern Munich, on the back of 280 goals he amassed at Tottenham Hotspurs. He’s also England’s top goal scorer, with 65 goals in 96 appearance for his nation. England’s leading attacking midfielder, Jude Bellingham, just concluded an amazing campaign with Real Madrid that saw him win the La Liga and Champions League, and he’s among the forerunners for the Balon D’Or this year. The other leading attacking midfielder for England, Phil Foden, enjoyed a stellar double winning campaign with Manchester City, which followed a treble winning campaign in the previous year, where he was a vital cog in the oil-rich machine.
England’s right winger, Bukayo Saka, is pretty much a star boy, and has been a modicum of consistency for Arsenal since usurping then record signing, Nicolas Pepe, in that flank and has grown leaps and bounds, banging in 20 goals in a campaign that saw the Gunners challenge for the Premier League only to lose out on the final day. Speaking of record signings, England’s chief central midfielder, Declan Rice, is a generational talent that oozes consistency like water off a duck’s back, putting up bangers after bangers in the center of the pitch. His partner, Kobbie Mainoo, is a breakout star that rose to the upper echelons of first team football in an elite club like Manchester United, and never looked back.
Behind all these stars further up the pitch is one hell of a mean defensive unit, led by Jordon Pickford in goal, renowned for raking in clean sheets with reckless abandon. The record books show that Pickford has 31 clean sheets for England in 66, which pretty much half of the games he has played for his nation. One of the defense’s stalwarts, Harry Maguire, missed out on the tournament due to a niggling calf injury, but Ivorian-turned-Englishman, Marc Guehi, was called up in his stead and has been a monster at the back alongside John Stones, while the ageless Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier provided support on each flank.
Bring all these lads together, and yes, you’d expect them to go all the way and win the European Championships. Hell, they only lost out on the last edition via penalty shootout, and made it to the last four of the 2018 World Cup, so England can be referred to as a football super power in the modern age.
What we have seen so far at this European Championships, however, is a far cry from what English fans and neutrals alike expected from the plethora of talent they possess. England barely scaled through the group stages, winning only their opening contest against Serbia via a thumping Bellingham header while the remaining matches against Denmark and Slovenia were bore fests that ended in stalemates. The knockout draws were kind enough to pair England with Slovakia, but the Three Lions had to grind out a result, and were actually on the cusp of elimination from the competition before a peach of a goal at the death from Bellingham and the match clincher in extra time from Kane.
The quarterfinals saw England lock horns with Switzerland, that qualified after taking the defending champions, Italy, to the cleaners in their Round of 16 tie. Prior to the game, the media circulated stories that England gaffer, Gareth Southgate, was deferring back to his favored back three formation, and we wondered how he intended to pull it off with the current crop in his disposal. When the team sheets were published, Stones played the libero role with Walker and Ezri Konsa, on for the suspended Guehi, flanking him. Saka and Trippier featured as the wing backs, Rice and Mainoo as the central midfielders, with Bellingham and Foden playing as attacking midfielders behind Kane. Foden has struggled badly on the left flank in this tournament, so seeing him return to his favored role was a welcome sight.
The first half wasn’t really a boring fest as we’ve seen from England in the tournament, but there was certainly pressure without any real penetration. Saka was a constant threat at the right, making life a living Hell for Aebischer, and England almost got the lead when Saka made mince meat of the full back before teeing the ball for Mainoo but former Arsenal man, Granit Xhaka, was on hand to make one of his trademark superb blocks.
It was Switzerland that took the lead, when Fabian Schar’s cross field ball was received by Ruben Vargas whose first-time drilled effort into the danger area ricocheted off Stones to an onrushing Breel Embolo that channeled his inner Filippo Inzaghi and Ruud van Nistelrooy to get ahead of Walker to guide the ball past the hapless Pickford.
Southgate went on a reactionary mode shortly after the goal, summoning Cole Palmer, Ebere Eze and the returning Luke Shaw, that was playing his first football since February 2024, into the fray. The attacking changes brought some wind to the English sails and they were rightly rewarded for their efforts when England’s bright spark all game long, Saka, restored parity after receiving a simple pass from Rice, cutting inside of Aebischer and Zuber to curl his effort to the bottom corner. This goal was akin to the one he waltzed past David de Gea a couple of seasons ago when Manchester United visited the Emirates. The game was fondly remembered for Eddie Nketiah’s brace, but the Saka goal was a carbon copy.
That goal sent the game into extra time, despite that fact that both teams played with one foot on the gas, there were some noteworthy chances. Dan Ndoye failed to capitalize on a great chance created by Schar, Rice blasted one of his blockbuster 30-yard efforts goalward but Yann Sommer was alert enough to make a wonderful save and with two minutes to spare, the legendary hobbit, Xherdan Shaqiri, curled an inswinging corner that left Pickford scrambling but the woodwork spared his blushes.
120 minutes weren’t enough to separate both teams so it was down to penalties, which has been a deciding factor in this tournament for a handful of games. England won the toss to start and also won the toss to play the spot kicks in front of their fans. The ghosts of Euro 2020 past lurked around, but it was down to England to dig within to vanquish those demons.
Up stepped Cole Palmer, the so-called penalty merchant at Chelsea. The young lad with ice cold veins and confidence levels way beyond his years executed one of his cool, calm and collected deliveries, sending Sommer the wrong way. Manuel Akanji, a defender plying his trade in England, stepped up, fired his penalty goalwards but the Everton goalie guessed the right way, sending the English crowd to delirium.
Yes, that was a great start for England, but there were still four penalty kicks to go. Bellingham stepped up. Did the annoying stuttering thing and sent a rolled finish past Sommer. Schar came through and mimicked Bellingham’s penalty stance, sending the ball past Pickford for 2-1. Up stepped Saka, the lad whose missed penalty against Italy in the last tournament denied England a chance at glory. He had a delayed run up, but you could see the relief from him and the crowd when his effort went into the net! Shaqiri was next and my word, that was the pick of the penalties, showing his great experience with a fantastic spot kick. 3-2.
Ivan Toney was next. The Brentford man has been lauded by his manager, Thomas Frank, to be the best penalty taker in the world, and his near-perfect record of 30 penalties scored from 32 attempts kinda supports it. Toney looked at the goalie throughout the ordeal and sent his effort to the bottom corner. A truly masterful attempt. Burnley’s Zeki Amdouni stepped up, waited for Pickford to dive to the side before playing the ball through the middle. 4-2.
Up stepped Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Liverpool wing back, whose experiment in midfield for England was dead on arrival, making him spend a considerable chunk of this European campaign on the bench. I expected a certified penalty taker like Eze to come through, but Alexander-Arnold justified his place among the takers with a curler that hit the roof of the net and sent England for a semifinal showdown with the Netherlands.
There were 24, now they are four. France takes on Spain and England locks horns with the Netherlands. There’s going to be a break for a couple of days, so it’s back to Arsenal stuff for me.
Till then, enjoy this blissful Sunday and yes, it’s England all the way!
Sayonara.