England 1
France 2
AND ALL FOR England is dismal again.
Harry Kane looked ashen-faced at the ground, a fleeting moment where it remained possible to see what had just been lost and what was about to come.
Kane, having already scored one penalty to equalise for England, had just blown the opportunity to do so again, to bring England back on terms against a diminished France in what was nonetheless this tournament’s de facto final. The kick was freighted with even more meaning: it would make Kane the most prolific goalscorer in England’s history.
But with everything and more all on the line, he blazed his penalty over the crossbar, the ball taking flight in the middle of the desert like a rocket test.
With history thwarted and golden opportunity lost, Kane now joins the lineage of cursed English men, great players laid low by the sheer ignorance of the sport and its uniquely fickle treatment of England when faced with a penalty kick.
At the end Kane was embraced by Gareth Southgate: to see it felt like a public intrusion on the privacy of a support group. This was hardly a game England deserved to lose, undone by moments of genius by Aurelien Tchouameni and then Antoine Griezmann, whose audacious cross was turned in by some combination of Olivier Giroud and Harry Maguire.
France were far from their best but it is they who advance to a benign route to glory, facing Morocco in the semi-finals and then either Argentina or Croatia in the final.
The game began with questions as to whether Gareth Southgate could win the war with his own caution, and stick with his 4-3-3 or revert to a back three in the face of Kylian Mbappe.
The team-sheet suggested he stuck with his back four, but the reality was more shaded in grey. Rightly terrified by Mbappe’s counter-attacking pace, England set up with a back four out of possession but tucked into a back three when they had the ball, Walker under strict instructions to loiter by Mbappe.
The merits of the plan were shown the very first time Walker strayed from it.
He crossed the halfway line for the first time in the 16th minute, and England were behind a minute later. Walker was caught forward when Dayot Upamecano won the ball in a challenge on Bukayo Saka that looked suspiciously like a foul but, with the referee unmoved, Mbappe scooted down the left wing and slalomed in-field, popping the ball to Antoine Griezmann. England filtered back – too far back – and they stood off Aurelien Tchoumeni, who took the ball from Griezmann and sent a gorgeous shot streaking into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
England were aggrieved at the fact Upamecano wasn’t pinged for a foul on Saka but in that clumsy moment Kane also spied an opportunity. Moments later Kane stood still for a pass in the box, solely to draw Upamecano to him. Thus achieved, he bumped him out of the way and allowed the ball run through for a one-on-one with Hugo Lloris, to which his clubmate dashed out and made a terrific, splayed save. Upamecano was tangling with Kane again minutes later, clipping his heels but seemingly on the edge of the box, a VAR check handing England no reward.
The first-half pulse was slow: as if everyone was slowly unknotting the tension of the whole thing.
England started the second half as if unleashed, Bellingham clapping his hands to his cheeks in a disbelieving, Munch’s Scream pose when Lloris tipped over his stunning volley.
England still weren’t sending Walker on an overlap and, quite frankly, there was little need to give Saka had seemingly agreed to take his side’s entire cause up by himself. First he skated into the penalty area after taking a neat reverse pass from Jordan Henderson and forced Upamecano to stretch every sinew in diverting his cut-back.
No matter. Moments later he serpented in from the right wing again and was chopped down by Tchoumaeni. The Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio couldn’t ignore the foul this time, and Kane slammed the penalty beyond Lloris. The goal hauled England back on terms and it also drew Kane level with Wayne Rooney at the top of England’s all-time goalscorer charts.
England took over the game, with Mbappe adequately shackled and France reduced to kicking Saka. The referee took a truly maverick approach to these fouls, though the award of one resulted in Harry Maguire climbing into the sky and grazing the post with a header.
But where Southgate’s tailored plan muted Mbappe, it was ultimately undone by the haughty defiance of Olivier Giroud. First Giroud forced Pickford into a brilliant save, steering Dembele’s header toward goal, settling for a corner. It was from the second phase of that corner that France struck.
Griezmann, retooled at this tournament in a more creative, deeper role, slung a stunning cross to the front post where it was met by Giroud. The final touch, it seems, may have come off the truly luckless Harry Maguire, at whom Job is now looking, wondering when the guy might catch a break.
Maguire’s was the lesser part of the night’s cruelty. Moments after conceding, England larrupped the ball long for substitute Mason Mount, who stood party to a Theo Hernandez blow-up, barging into Mount’s back for no good reason. The referee naturally waved it away – a true Let it Flow merchant – but the penalty was rightly awarded after a VAR review.
Kane, faced with a penalty freighted with terrible meaning, incomprehensibly hooked the ball over the crossbar. England’s siege was bloodless: Kane’s miss shattered them. There was one last chance, after Kingsley Coman caught Maguire mid-lope on the edge of the box. Marcus Rashford stood up to the ball, and skimmed the roof of the net.
That was the final act. The whistle blew, England sank into the soak of their despair as the French players cavorted joyfully about.
England have left their bright future under Southgate behind them.
England: Jordan Pickford; Kyle Walker, John Stones (Jack Grealish, 95′), Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw; Declan Rice, Jordan Henderson (Mason Mount, 79′), Jude Bellingham; Bukayo Saka, (Raheem Sterling, 78′) Harry Kane (captain), Phil Foden (Marcus Rashford, 84′)
France: Hugo Lloris (captain); Jules Kounde, Raphael Varane, Dayot Upamecano, Theo Hernandez; Aurelien Tchouameni; Ousmane Dembele (Kingsley Coman, 78′), Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe; Olivier Giroud
Referee: Wilton Sampaio (BRA)