England vs Colombia Match Review: It’s Probably Coming Home

Credits:  USA Latest News

What’s more boring that listening to English fans saying “It’s coming home?” after their win last night?

The answer is: the match itself.

Looking at the trend of the half that England have placed themselves in the knockout stages, there seems to be a run of games where it either ends up in penalties, or end up being a drab of a match. Whether or not Gareth Southgate has got word of it, they stuck through to nature of the half.

Both sides had nothing to shout about in this game, each with players focused on grabbing their opponents than keeping possession of the ball. Colombia were evidently lacking the extra edge, with James Rodriguez ruled out for the game. England’s stubborn defense and intense physicality was something that Stoke City players will be lauding for days to come. They’d clap for the Colombians, too.

The second half saw the same tempo to the game; rather stop-start, with a total of 36 fouls shared among the two teams. That all came to a boil when Carlos Sanchez yet again was thrown into the spotlight, after wrestling Harry Kane to the spot. Colombia, unhappy with the decision, decided to confront the referee, which took longer to disperse than a referee would take to review a VAR decision. The penalty was soon converted, and England had the upper edge.

In true Mourinho fashion, England were content to sit back and withstand the Colombian pressure. That obviously didn’t work, when Yerry Mina, or Kieran Trippier, rather, headed the ball into goal in his efforts to clear it from the goalmouth. Both teams clawed at each other all the way into the end of the second half, one which saw Jordan Pickford making a superb save to deny a screamer from Colombia.

After yet another scrappy 30 minutes, it went down to penalties, and that’s when all England fans were biting their nails. England, prior to this game, were on a poor track record in penalty shoot-outs, being unsuccessful in the last 3 occasions where they had to decide a match in such manner. However, Jordan Pickford rose to the occasion, making a two superb saves against Uribe and Bacca, which was enough to see them through to the next round, where they will face Sweden.

If there’s one thing that will keep England’s hopes up, is that Sweden’s last appearance in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 1994, and they too rely on a very defensive stature, which means that if they play how they played in this game, it would be good enough to see them through.

Colombia may have the attacking firepower many nations fear, but they did not have the glue that binds it together, and that was ultimately the one that has resulted in their exit from the World Cup. England, on the other hand, have to probably consider playing Rashford rather than Sterling, who has ironically had a rather poor campaign so far.

A huge test comes in the form of a sturdy Sweden side, and if Southgate decides to bring in pace to the arsenal that he already has, maybe, just maybe, it might be coming home.

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