England Heads to The Semis after 28 Long Years Following a Dominant Display against Sweden
Sweden will no doubt be disappointed after this performance which can be called tame at best. They put all their trust on their disciplined defense and spent the entire match trying to fend off the English onslaught.
It’s been a strange sort of a World Cup this time around and it keeps getting stranger as England beat Sweden to march into the semis. Although on paper Gareth Southgate’s squad was always favored more than Sweden, if the previous iterations of the World Cup finals were any indicator, then one always counts the English team to falter inexplicably. But Harry Kane’s team laid those concerns to rest as they comfortably swept aside Sweden 2-0 to cement their spot in the semi-finals at Moscow; a stage they are reaching for the first time since 1990. Now that’s something.
The game started out pretty slowly at the Samara Arena with both teams testing the waters cautiously and not creating too many serious chances for themselves. The Swedes allowed England the bulk of the possession initially and almost dared them to try and break their rigid defense. And they did just that at the half hour mark, with Harry Maguire thumping in a header off an Ashley Young set piece which was too good for Swedish goalkeeper Olsen to keep out. The final nail in the coffin which sealed the deal came in the second half when a delightful chip from Manchester United wonder boy Jesse Lingard found an open Dele Alli at the goal side of the Swedish defense for a free header into the net.
It was a clinical performance by the three lions squad who looked on top from the opening kickoff. However there will be plenty of areas for them to work on if they are to achieve real glory at Moscow on Sunday. Their passes will have to get more efficient, finishing more confident and the defensive lapses will have to be avoided. Sweden did manage to create a couple of threatening opportunities, especially Berg’s shot which was expertly flicked over the top of the bar by Jordan Pickford, who continued to make his case as one of the best young goalkeepers in this tournament. Honestly the final scoreline should have been more favorable for the English squad had some of Raheem Sterling’s chances fell to Harry Kane. Sterling put on a lovely show with the ball at his feet, gliding past the Swedish defense with veritable ease and creating chances galore up front, but he botched up a sitter when he found himself one on one with Olsen off an absolutely surgical pass from Henderson. It was one of those frustrating games where he did everything right apart from getting his name on the stat sheet. He will look to redeem himself at Moscow come the semi finals.
Sweden will no doubt be disappointed after this performance which can be called tame at best. They put all their trust on their disciplined defense and spent the entire match trying to fend off the English onslaught. Even after Maguire took the lead for England they failed to switch gears and assert themselves in any way which made England nervous. Claesson and Berg had a couple of good shots on target but failed to get the ball past Pickford. All in all Sweden looked outclassed today but they should be proud of their performance in this world cup which took them all the way into the world cup quarter finals.
After the match, English manager Gareth Southgate was visibly jubilant but also stressed that the team should not get carried away as the job was yet to be done. He correctly pointed out instances of sloppy play from his team and that they could put on a much better display than their performance today for long stretches of time.
At the end of the day England should feel confident heading into the semi final after today’s win. They have already scored 11 goals, same as Sir Alf Ramsey’s winning English side in 1966. Most importantly they managed to avoid any suspensions or injury heading into the upcoming match and will be at full strength. They will meet either Croatia or Russia at Moscow and as good as those two teams are, England should fancy their chances against any of the two. Hopefully their play will reflect this confidence and they will manage to set the tempo from the start of the opening whistle, but for now after a long time, English fans can dare to dream.