Another semi-final, another defeat. Gareth Southgate’s England side have become beloved and beguiling in the last twelve months, but have also made an unhappy habit of falling at the penultimate hurdle. The worry will be that this failure, itself of little material importance, will keep wounds from Moscow from healing. In a night that saw VAR drama, countless defensive mishaps and ecstacy turned to agony, the Three Lions fell short after John Stones’ glaring error.
What will haunt England even more is how similarly this loss mirrored 2018 – ahead in the first half they begun to lose the midfield battle, before conceding an equaliser in regular time and a second in the thirty minutes added on. This side has come an awful long way, but on the strength of tonight still have some distance to go before they can banish the ghosts of World Cup past. “What we have to do is go from being a team that has got to two semi-finals to a team that converts that into wins,” said Southgate before the tie. That remains the stated aim after it.
The climate in Guimarães had been stormy. Rain thundered down for hours before kick-off. Fans fought with police, smashed windows and hurled abuse. And then the football began.
30,000 filed in to Estadio D. Afonso Henriques, so named after King Afonso I, monikered ‘The Conqueror’. Banks of orange and a vast sea of white thronged to their own tune. The latter whistled and jeered their opponents, and chanted “your support is fucking shit” without a hint of self-awareness.
These sides have a great deal in common. Both wield talented youth, an attacking mindset, and are on an upward trajectory, fuelled by a positive Champions League campaign. They matched up in formation too, both managers opting for a 4-3-3 with a mobile midfield, roving forwards and centre-backs stepping out with the ball. Fluidity was the order of the day, but was in short supply. It seemed the pre-match storm had filtered onto the pitch after all.
Neither team set about honouring the stadium’s eponym swiftly. This was a game that some noted might feature the world’s four most expensive centre-backs very soon, but you wouldn’t have known it judging their performance this evening. Errors were regular, but went unpunished. Bergwijn and Depay were both wasteful after being gifted time and space, either firing straight at Pickford or losing the ball before getting a chance to do so. Only Ross Barkley really displayed his true quality, his touch deft and his passing crisp.
Inevitably a defensive error was going to lead to something – England were simply fortunate that it was not their error to make. De Ligt lost control of the ball receiving a simple pass, and the man who displayed nerves of steel and a maturity beyond his years all season leapt into a rash mis-timed challenge on Marcus Rashford. No VAR was required for a fault that glaring. Rashford, who had hardly been in the game, took a long run up, pausing midway as the boisterous England crowd were finally silenced. He sent Cillessen the wrong way, and finished cooly in the bottom right hand corner.
One moment of quality stood out, and unsurprisingly it was Barkley that sparked it. A superb ball found the goalscorer, who played it to Sancho. Sancho nutmegged De Ligt, who had the most hapless ten minutes of his life so far, and found Rashford with a return through ball. Just as a second looked imminent, Denzel Dumfries made a strong last-ditch covering tackle. John Stones’ inexplicable overplaying resulted in a corner on the stroke of half-time. It was no surprise when De Ligt missed his free header, with Stones out of position. This may not be the most prestigious of international tournaments, but something – tension, inexperience, fatigue – had seized so many of the twenty-two players in its grasp.
Kane replaced Rashford at half-time. Maguire could not convert a tempting volley, this was not that sort of evening. Netherlands had a half-decent appeal for a penalty after Ben Chilwell’s tackle, which would have been very much in keeping with the theme of the night, but it fell on deaf ears. Suddenly a game still lacking in quality came alive – Sancho missing a glorious headed chance to make it 2-0 unmarked about five yards away from goal, and Pickford saving well from a Dutch counter. England, perhaps sensing danger, retreated and their fans started to waver too.
They were right to sense danger. Like against Croatia in 2018, Southgate’s side fell back and fell away, control in the midfield non-existent. De Ligt atoned for his earlier mistake, rising high and powering in a header from an out-swinging corner from the right. Keen to avoid history repeating itself, Southgate opted for action, switching to a 4-4-2. Van de Beek blasted over when well placed, and a Dutch winner seemed incoming.
But Jesse Lingard had other ideas. England’s persistence paid off. A move starting with Jordan Pickford was ignited by Sterling’s flick and Barkley weight through ball, and Lingard cooly finished beyond Cillessen. Unfortunately, so did VAR – a fractional offside was called. It was devastating for England, who thought they had won it, and Netherlands raced up the other end, nearly scoring. Appeals for hand-ball raised fears of more VAR meddling, but thankfully a tense minute produced no penalty. The comparisons with Moscow continued as the game headed for extra-time.
Maguire was the most relieved man in Guimarāes after his error let Depay in, but Bergwijn shanked his squared ball with the goal gaping. Sterling skimmed the bar, a dramatic winner on his 50th cap just evading him. Another 30 minutes of football met him instead.
Kane had to clear off the line to deny Van Dijk repeating De Ligt’s equaliser. And then England’s centre-back had a meltdown. Stones needlessly delayed on the ball in the box, again, and Depay nipped in. Pickford’s outstanding save denied the forward, but Kyle Walker sliced in an own goal trying to deny Quincy Promes on the follow up.
Pickford delivered heroics again straight after, and Kane had to clear off the line once more. The game was there for the taking for the Netherlands, and England handed it to them on a plate again. Stones’ pass to Barkley sold the Chelsea man slightly short, and his poor response fed in Depay, Promes finishing for a third.
England were an inch away from winning in regulation time, their demons banished and their playing style gloriously vindicated. Instead those scars look as fresh as ever, and their defenders will reflect on a night that saw costly mistake after costly mistake.
Play from the Back 