England may have a cursed history when it comes to penalty shootouts, but they managed to overcome their past in defeating Colombia to move on to the World Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.
English teams had gone to penalties on three previous occasions at the World Cup, but had been eliminated each time.
Kane Scores Again in England Win
In what was a highly physical game that saw eight yellow cards awarded – six to Colombian players – the most significant moment of the first half may have comes in the 38th minute, when Colombia’s Wilmar Barrios appeared to head butt England’s Jordan Henderson in the chest. While English players appealed for a VAR review of the incident, the referee gave Barrios a yellow, and play went on.
After a scoreless first half, England broke through early in the second. Harry Kane was brought down in the box by Carlos Sanchez, and despite passionate appeals from the Colombians, England was awarded a penalty. Kane stepped up and scored his sixth goal of the tournament to give his team a 1-0 lead.
As the minutes wore on, it appeared that England would be able to hold on to their advantage, as Colombia created few real chances. But that changed in stoppage time, as Mateus Uribe hit a powerful shot from distance that English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford could only parry aside for a corner kick. On the resulting set piece, defender Yerry Mina skied above the pack of players in front of goal to blast a header into the net, tying the match 1-1.
The match went to extra time, and while both teams generated chances over the course of 30 minutes – with England looking particularly dangerous in the second extra period – there were no goals scored, sending the match to a shootout.
The first five penalties were converted before Jordan Henderson missed for England, raising fears that the country’s history of futility from the spot would add another chapter. But Mateus Uribe fired his kick into the crossbar, while Kieran Trippier came back with a confident strike to tie the shootout at three each.
Colombia’s Carlos Bacca was denied by Pickford, giving England the chance to win on their fifth penalty. Eric Dier converted, earning England a spot in the quarterfinals.
“Shootouts are tough but we talked long and hard about owning the process,” England manager Gareth Southgate said after the match. “We kept calm. Again, great credit to all our staff and all the players who’ve taken it on board. We got our rewards tonight.”
Forsberg Leads Sweden to Quarterfinals
In Tuesday’s other match, Sweden defeated Switzerland 1-0, with Emil Forsberg scoring the only goal of the match. Neither side was able to generate many chances, with the two teams combining for only seven shots on goal.
The decisive strike came in the 66th minute, when Forsberg’s drive deflected off a defender, throwing off Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer and sending Sweden through to the quarterfinals.
“It’s the biggest goal of my career, one of the biggest moments in my career too,” Forsberg said after the match. “To experience this, to fire Sweden into a quarterfinals together with this group, it feels fantastic.”
On what is universally felt to be the softer side of the bracket, England are now joint second favorites with France to hoist the World Cup, with William Hill giving both teams 7/2 odds of winning the tournament. But Sweden isn’t getting the same respect: they currently have the longest odds to go all the way at 22/1.
That’s largely because England is a heady favorite to defeat Sweden in their quarterfinal match. The English are a 4/5 pick to win the match outright, while Sweden can be backed at 4/1. Still, Southgate says he won’t take the Swedes lightly heading into Saturday’s match.
“Sweden is another team we have a poor record against,” Southgate said. “We’ve underestimated them for years. They’re brilliant at what they do.”
