The only time the English became world champions 60 years ago, they have established themselves in the elite of world teams over the past decade – since 2018 they have played twice in the European Championship final, reached the World Cup semifinals twice, and once fell in the quarterfinals.
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But they failed to jump over the cursed Rubicon again.
In this century, there have only been two cases in World Cup semifinals where teams had the advantage but did not maintain it and did not reach the final. In both cases, England was the victim.
Just like in the 2018 World Cup semifinal against Croatia, in yesterday’s match against Argentina, the English managed to score first, led 1-0 for a long time, but ultimately had to swallow a bitter pill and admit defeat.
However, eight years ago, it was still a young England team with newly appointed and inexperienced coach Gareth Southgate, for whom just reaching the semifinals was a big achievement – the English did this for the first time since 1990.
This time, England did not intend to stop at the semifinals and seriously aimed to finally bring the most sacred football grail back to the foggy Albion.
“There are no excuses now. This was the fourth semifinal of this England team in eight years. The backbone of this team is already formed, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are at the peak of their game, and the team is much stronger than in 2018, with many more options on the bench,” writes The Athletic.
This time everything was supposed to be different because the English Football Association paid huge money to lure the coach considered the best in the world championship. One who was supposed to plan and lead England to the finish line of the tournament, using the physicality and skills of Premier League players. But instead, everything ended as always – England offered nothing in attack, retreated, and was eventually outplayed.
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Only unlike before, this time England chose such a fate itself; it was not imposed on them.”
After the first half, during which both teams combined made only three shots and did not create a single good chance to score, England managed to take the lead at the start of the second half, with Barcelona club newcomer Anthony Gordon scoring in the 55th minute.
Although the English did not have a playing advantage, scoring gave them the luxury to control the flow of the game for the remaining half hour.
Instead, the team considered more talented in the semifinal chose to retreat and let Argentina press on their own goal. Similar to the round of 16, but then the English had no other choice as they were down to 10 men after Jarellio Quansah received a red card and played 10 against 11.
“Tuchel made tactical changes that will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes by an England team coach in history,” writes The Athletic.
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