England 1 - France 2
18' Tchouameni
51' Kane (pen)
78' Giroud
France started this game as the more positive of the two sides; knowing full well that they had the ability to not only match England man for man on the pitch but that they were also able to open up spaces through better movement off the ball and better movement in transitional play. The opening period of play saw France try to move the ball around at a furious tempo, having seen England ease themselves into every match thus far in the tournament.
The opening scare was given at the ten minute mark when Tchouameni delivered a swinging ball inwards from deep in the England left back corner; which was met with a thrust down header by Olivier Giroud. It was only the hands of Pickford which kept the scoreless deadlock. France were here to make a point and do it quickly.
England should have realised that Tchouameni was dangerous but they seemingly forgot that he existed and gave him way to much space in the last third of the pitch. Tchouameni was rewarded with his persistence in the 18th minute when again he was allowed to roam around in way too much space and gave himself time and space to belt home a shot from 30 yards away.
France immediately decided to close up up after this and became compact in defence. This became a feature of the rest of the game as France used more than necessary force on repeated occasions, to keep out any English marauders. When Sakr was brought down in the 19th minute, Luke Shaw's free kick was inane and useless. However England, knowing that they had to do something, kept on driving more players forward. England, spurred on by the possibility of a goal continued to press and French tempers flared; as exemplified by when Harry Kane was brought down in the 26th minute in what should have been a penalty but nothing was given.
The half ended 1-0 to France but England came out in the second period, a bit more spritely after the break. French defending again resorted to cynically bringing down English players and the referee would have done nothing when Bellingham was brought down by Tchouameni. Harry Kane stood up to take the spot kick and banged one to Lloris' left hand side; as he probably would have done many many times on the training pitch at Tottenham Hotspur.
With the scores 1-1, England finally looked like they might have a chance but Maguire missed a rather easy header and Shaw's 71st minute pass which found Sakr just outside the 6 yard box was sprayed wide. Against the run of play and after having managed to win a corner off a deflection, a period of French hesitancy was suddenly rewarded with Griezmann floated a ball into the 18 yard box; which found the head of Olivier Giroud and France were back in the lead.
England looking to bounce back from this, since time was running out, pressed higher up the field and France again reverted to roughhousery. Within a minute of the restart, Mason Mount who while being the last man on goal was shoved in the back by Fernandez, with the Frenchman making no attempt to play for the ball at all. The referee had to give a penalty for such a brazen and blatant foul and Fernandez should have been given a straight red card but the referee was only persuaded to hand out a yellow.
The number that will haunt England fans in this World Cup is 83, for that was the minute in which England's hope melted like snow in a pizza oven. Harry Kane the scorer of the first penalty, stood up to take the second, and put the ball so wide and so high that it may have to be registered as a piece of space debris.
That was it. England weren't going to be given anything that obvious ever again. Harry Maguire was brought down by Fernandez in the 87th minute; probably because the latter now knew that he was immune from any kind of punishment and the last roll of the dice came in the 90th+10 minute of the game when Sakr became the fifth player to be brought down by the French defence and Marcus Rashford's free kick attempt from 47 yards out, could only ever be optimistic at best.
This England 1 - France 2 game will be remembered for Harry Kane's monumental fluff of a penalty and England couldn't be any more England as they find ever more new and exciting ways to crash out of a World Cup. In this match, England managing to lose on penalties (even in a match that didn’t go to penalties) is comedy gold and shows a simply incredible commitment to the bit.
Now obviously I am disappointed but I can not make disparaging remarks about Gareth Southgate's management of England. To make it through to the semi-finals in Russia, the final in England, and now the quarter-finals in Qatar, shows that England is being managed properly. A knock-out competition demands that whomever the World Champion is, has to have held up four times having escaped the group; with an allowance of one loss in the group stage, that means 6/7. Or to put this another way, that would mean winning 32 games in the Premier League which would give you 96 points, and teams have won for less. At the beginning of the tournament, I predicted that either France, Argentina or Brazil would win all of the marbles but having now seen Brazil crash out and Argentina look fragile, France has solidified as the obvious favourite.
Of course the popular press will inevitably start shouting every which way and say that it's good enough to lose to France or lose in finals and semi-finals butthis is the inherent problem with hope. Hope sets you up for a greater degree of disappointment when it does finally fail. I'd argue if anything that England has to go back to the old ways, which included losing to Iceland and failing to get out of the qualifying rounds because that's understandable and not as sad when it does go bang. As for Gareth Southgate, the chap is a class act. He should be asked to stay on as England manage unless he wants to do something else such as be Prime Minister or UN Secretary General.
Harry Kane needs a knighthood, Jude Bellingham needs a bikkie and a cup of tea, and England generally needs to become more like Australia, Uruguay, Canada, or Japan, and accept that golden generations are allowed to fail and that playing well (which is what England did) still might not be enough to capture lightning in a bottle.
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