against brave Switzerland, England competent in suffering – Libération

2024-07-06 19:12:58

Euro football 2024dossier

Despite a disappointing performance, the Three Lions qualified for the semi-finals of the continental competition on Saturday July 6 in Düsseldorf, after a penalty shootout. They will face Turkey or the Netherlands on Thursday.

Call the English supporters, who light up the streets of Düsseldorf every day with “don’t send me home, please don’t send me home, I just don’t want to go to work(«don’t take me home please I don’t want to go to work“), are sure: they will be able to enjoy a few more days of their German holiday. From their team, however, they certainly expect much more than the tasteless soup they have been serving for three weeks Because if England is qualified for the semi-finals of the continental competition by beating Switzerland, this Saturday July 6 in Düsseldorf after a penalty shootout, if it shows heart, passion and resilience, it delivers disappointing news, which it can cause the following opposition. coach Gareth Southgate for months, and even more since the beginning of the Euro – the fault of the first round failed and the last minute victory in the round of 16 against Slovakia.

Lack of thought

However, the coach has finally decided to change his game plan, like football observers Drummer ask it loud and clear it. Make way for an organization with three defenders that should facilitate the offensive animation, in the hope of putting the stars of the team in orbit, starting with Jude Bellingham Madrid. But the coach’s strategic choices still didn’t pay off this Saturday. Again, England seemed shy, hesitant, lacking in noise and ideas. At rest, he has not received a single shot (neither has his opponent of the evening), and his supporters, who only have to get their teeth in a few paces from Jude Bellingham or the attack also carries the piston Bukayo Saka, are angry. at the half hour mark when, in a corner, their charges did not even try to pass and fell back to the governor Jordan Pickford.

To see the shots on goal on the lawn of the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf, we will have to wait until the locker room returns, and two attempts from the Swiss striker of AS Monaco Breel Embolo, too weak to shake the government. Thirty minutes later, the third will be the good one for number 7, who opened the scoring with a burning face at the far post. England then almost disappeared, but they woke up – it was time. Coach Southgate made three changes, and Bukayo Saka equalized directly, with his left foot, twenty meters. The Three Lions’ first shot on goal, in the 80th minute of the match.

Heroes and martyrs

Like Germany-Spain and France-Portugal, the day before, this third quarter of Euro 2024 also inherited its extension, more lively and intense than the first 90 minutes, with a Swiss corner that hit directly on the cross of Jordan Pickford , a wonderful save from the Everton goalkeeper on a Swiss praline a few minutes from the end and another from his teammate Yann Sommer just before. Alas: the game, which was not decided until the end, had to end with a penalty kick, in front of the English supporters’ stand, which was calm until then but now it is impossible. The sport, the brutality that football has created, always has its heroes and its martyrs. This Saturday, on the field at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf, the hero is Jordan Pickford, who managed to attack the first attack from the Swiss defender Manuel Akanji before all his teammates changed their fines.

A hot team, a competitive coach, a slow but still winning career and a semi-final at the end of the road: this England selection looks exactly like Didier Deschamps’ French team. To see the end in Berlin and keep your dream of “take the ball home», as his supporters blew their trumpets, he will also have to get rid of the Netherlands or Turkey, who face each other this Friday evening for the last quarter-final. As for Nati, they fell short of qualifying to the last four – a high they have never reached in their history, either in the Euro or in the international competition. But he showed, across the Rhine, that he knows how to rise to the biggest countries in European football – Germany, suspended in the group stage, Italy, the defending champion defeated in the round of 16, and England . He was able to return to the country with his head held high, even though he was crippled with grief.