England are the football team that has forgotten how to play, but also how to lose. It may be a curious combination that takes Gareth Southgate and his team to the Euro 2024 final in Berlin.
When England travelled to Germany, we expected and perhaps even hoped to be here with a week of football left. They were deep into another tournament under Southgate and well placed to justify their position as one of the favourites for this competition.
However, we did not expect the team to travel like this. Under Southgate’s uncertain management, England continue to look like a car running on three wheels.
This has been England’s worst game at a tournament since Euro 2016 in terms of the football they have played. Here against Switzerland, they started well in Southgate’s new 3-5-2 system but fell back. For too many of these 120 minutes in Dusseldorf, England played mediocre football and the record shows that out of five 90-minute games against Iceland, Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland, they have won just once.
But England have a platform to challenge for glory and that in itself is something to be savoured and appreciated. Despite the circumstances, we should be grateful. Besides, it is surely impossible that another get-out-of-jail-free performance here will not give them something to build on and work towards ahead of the semi-final in Dortmund on Wednesday night.
England have struggled at Euro 2024 so far but are still in the semi-finals.
No one can question England’s mettle, their football has been poor but, for the second game in a row, they have scored a late goal of great quality (Bukayo Saka, right, scores for England).
But if England are to challenge for ultimate glory in Berlin next Sunday, they will need to produce a much better performance.
No one can question England’s mettle, no doubt about it. Their football was poor again here, but for the second game in a row they scored a fine late goal to save themselves. That’s what big-game players can do and England have plenty of it.
Against Slovakia, it was Jude Bellingham who was tasked with scoring. This time it was the wonderful Bukayo Saka. Then, when it came to penalties, five English players kept their cool impeccably to take them perfectly. They deserve credit for that. It’s hard enough to win football games by playing well, but it’s quite another thing to do so when you don’t.
That is where the good news begins and ends, though, and what is increasingly certain is that if England are to challenge for ultimate glory in Berlin next Sunday, they will have to do so without too much in-game help from their manager.
This was Southgate’s 100th game in charge of England and he still looks like a manager who is ready for the end of the road. Those of us who have followed his journey from caretaker manager to a man who has taught English players to hold their own at major tournaments would argue that he deserves back-to-back appearances in a Euro final to cement his legacy and spare him the trouble of those who simply decided from the start that they didn’t like him.
This was Gareth Southgate’s (pictured) 100th game in charge of England and he still looks a bit like a manager who is ready for the end of the road.
The England manager (left) has had a poor tournament and is lucky to still be here.
But it is an inescapable fact that Southgate has had as bad a tournament as any of his players. He is lucky to still be here and deep down he will know it.
Southgate was convinced that his selection for this match was a safe bet. He knew he had to do something to shake his players out of the lethargy that threatened to suffocate them. A miracle goal from Bellingham had pulled England out of the quagmire in Gelsenkirchen last Sunday and Southgate knew he could not rely on another goal.
For a time, England had some sparkle. They were better. Saka was excellent from the start and it was a joy to see the Arsenal man finish tonight with a huge smile on his boyish face. His penalty will finally have erased the memory of the one he missed on that terrible night at Wembley in the Euro 2020 final. The 22-year-old is one of the stars of English football.
With Bellingham and Phil Foden playing closer together behind Harry Kane, England had some resolve, some possession and some forward drive. But that didn’t last. The first half went by without a shot on target and when Switzerland took the lead in the 75th minute, Southgate’s side still hadn’t managed one.
And it was during this period of the game that we once again found Southgate sitting on his hands. Kane had been toiling away in attack all afternoon. Frankly, the England captain looked ponderous and leggy and ready to bask in the sun. Inexplicably, he stayed. England had also lacked any sort of balance on the left flank, where the selection of Kieran Trippier robbed them of an outlet. It is not, of course, the Newcastle player’s natural side.
But it was not until Switzerland had scored and the exit looked more imminent that Southgate called on his substitutes. Three of them arrived at once and, seconds after Cole Palmer, Luke Shaw and Eberechi Eze had come on, Saka flicked the ball with his left foot and saw it fly across goal and in off the far post. By that point, England’s last three shots on target in the tournament had gone in. One here and two against Slovakia.
Saka (pictured) was excellent from the start and it was a joy to see the Arsenal man finish the evening with a big smile.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (pictured) was one of many stars who stepped up to take a penalty, with the Liverpool ace slotting home the decisive spot-kick.
There has been a certain magnetism to the way England have strided forward and it has been difficult to take your eyes off them.
England captain Harry Kane (left) stayed on despite looking ungainly and short-legged during the game.
But can England continue to play so below their level and still progress? Absolutely.
England’s run through this competition has had a certain magnetism. It’s certainly hard to look away from it, simply because it’s been so peculiar. However, it’s also hard to ignore what we’ve seen. Towards the end of extra time, England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was wasting time and waiting for penalties. And rightly so.
Can he continue like this? Can England continue to play so far below their level and still progress? Of course they can. We have already learned that. England have looked like a team that expected to be beaten all summer, but the longer they go without delivering that decisive blow, the more they will believe that this may finally be their year. Many other big guns have gone home, but England are still swimming.
For years we have come back from these tournaments feeling like we had forgotten something on the pitch, that we were somehow destined to never get what we deserved. This time the feeling is different and perhaps it is simply a wave that England should ride.
Southgate’s side have not played a single game well in Germany and are now one of four teams left. Imagine what could happen in the next seven days if they finally manage to rise to the occasion. We wait and hope.