Gareth Southgate England victory
World Cup 2018 — Gareth Southgate’s saved goal from Colombia 1-1 England (3-4 pens).
England turned history on its head to win their first World Cup penalty shootout at the expense of Colombia, and in doing so recorded their first knockout victory at a major tournament since 2006.
England triumph prove to be for Gareth Southgate and his squad after showing strength and resolve to recover from conceding an injury-time equaliser.
England’s elation was obvious and understandable as Eric Dier’s penalty flashed past David Ospina and the cacophony from Colombia’s fans was finally silenced here in Moscow.
If Southgate wanted this World Cup to be a learning curve for his players – a finishing school at elite level – this bruising, argumentative, niggly match was perfectly designed for the purpose
They had won their first knockout match at a major tournament since Ecuador were beaten in Germany in 2006 and the curse of the penalty shootout was finally laid to rest as they won to set up a quarter-final against Sweden in Samara on Saturday.
England and their followers have nursed a barely concealed sense of dread of spot-kicks after a dismal run in penalty shootouts, which brought only one win in seven before Tuesday.
So it would have been easy for those old nightmares to be revisited when Jordan Henderson’s penalty was saved – but instead Jordan Pickford’s save from Carlos Bacca, on top of Mateus Uribe’s miss, set up Dier’s golden moment.
In an instant, the monkey was off England’s back – and amid the fallout of this landmark victory came a sense that Southgate and his players may just be destined to make their win.
England’s fans were swamped by Colombia’s, a small but defiant group at one end vastly outnumbered by the cascade of yellow shirts that decorated the rest of this arena.
And how they supported their team, with a continuous, thunderous roar only interrupted by deafening chants and occasional bursts of dissent at referee Mark Geiger.
It was played like a win-or-bust European game on the most hostile territory and was at times a harrowing experience that will serve Southgate and England well going forward.
And then came the mental and physical examinations posed by Jose Pekerman’s team as they disputed almost every decision, indulged in grappling throughout and even saw one of their coaching staff give Raheem Sterling a deliberate and totally unnecessary nudge as he came off at half-time.
There was another element of dirty tricks when Harry Kane waited four minutes to take his penalty, Colombia’s Johan Mojica scuffing up the penalty spot amid scenes close to anarchy as others in yellow tried to get inside the England captain’s head.
England looked out on their feet in the first half of extra time, but rallied later on and it was Colombia who were engineering play to reach the relative safe haven of penalties. Real levels for Southgate as he guided England into a quarter-final with Sweden and with possibility of a last-four meeting with hosts Russia or Croatia should they prevail.
Saturday when England face Sweden, will be good game to watch.
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