To say, ‘It’s coming home’ would be a bit too early, but when Harry Maguire hammered a header into the net and Dele Alli scored his first in over two years, England were racing to their first-ever semi-finals appearance at the World Cup since 1990.
England eventually beat Sweden 2-0 to set-up a Moscow semi-final on Wednesday, with their best performance of the tournament.
It was so uncharacteristic and ‘un-English’ like – No hesitation to attack, no drama, no brain-fade and no crumbling under pressure. It was at all odds with what English teams of the past have presented, but that is what Gareth Southgate’s revolutionary bunch of 23 are all about.
The last time England made it to the semi-finals of a World Cup was 28 years ago, when they beat Cameroon 4-2 on penalties and they have lost two such since then – the latest being a 0-4 hammering at the hands of Germany in 2006.
But this English team didn’t need to go to the shootouts. They are here writing their own stories, scoring goals from set-pieces and from open play.
So much that when Maguire thumped in a Ashley Young corner into the goal, England had already scored their eight from a set-piece and fourth from a corner this World Cup. That the goal came from their first corner, showed how devastating and deadly this team is from dead-ball situations.
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The goal suddenly opened up the hidden talent of this young crop of players and soon England were dominating a knockout game – so rare and so seldomly seen.
Sterling was buzzing inside the Swedish half, bursting through with runs – an English fan couldn’t have dared to dream. He was first found by Jesse Lingard but was off-side, then Henderson sent a long ball straight into him and although he should have scored and England should have gone 2-0 up, his failure to do so didn’t matter. What mattered was the joy and happiness their play brought.
Then the whistle went-off and Sweden in the second-half finally seemed to be playing like a team trailing by a goal in a knockout match. They ran at the English defence-line but failed to cross and even when they did, Jordan Pickford was there to protect.
But in-between those attacks that seemed to grow as the game wore on, England had gone 2-0 up. Kevin Trippier found Lingard in open space and the Manchester United star chipped the ball over for Alli to score.
There was no stopping England from there on and although Sweden put more men upfront, the three-line defence of Kyle Walker, John Stones and Maguire was ever-present to nullify those attacks. When they failed, Pickford brought out his best.
First he went down to his left to saved Marcus Berg’s powerful header and then to his right to prevent Viktor Claesson from scoring. Finally a point-blank save to keep away Berg’s shot.
By the time it finished, England has kept their first clean-sheet in the tournament and it had come in a knockout game! So unbelievable yet so real, unimagined and hardly dreamt. But standing there at the Samara Arena as England celebrated, one could hardly deny himself from imagining, that perhaps ‘it finally might be coming home.