How’s your heart rate? Settled down yet?
England are through to the last eight of the World Cup after a win on penalties. Yes, really.
Before it reached the shoot-out, Harry Kane’s second half penalty had looked to have been enough for Gareth Southgate’s side to progress, restricting Colombia to very few chances in Moscow. But of course, this is England…
Up popped defender Yerry Mina to head home an equaliser from a corner kick in stoppage time. All of a sudden extra-time, penalties and another disappointing major tournament elimination seemed inevitable.
Not this night, however.
Extra-time passed, and although Jordan Henderson was responsible for the first failed spot-kick of the shoot-out, a combination of Mateus Uribe hitting the underside of the bar and Jordan Pickford saving brilliantly from Carlos Bacca allowed Eric Dier to send England through.
Their first major tournament penalty shoot-out win since the quarter-finals of Euro ’96 – their first ever at a World Cup.
The victory was made even more sweet after England were denied a couple of significant decisions. Wílmar Barrios should have seen red for a head-butt on Jordan Henderson, only for the referee, who hadn’t seen the incident and did not consult VAR, to only show him a yellow card.
Jesse Lingard also appeared to be fouled in the area with England a goal up, only for the referee to ignore appeals for a second penalty.
Colombian players’ attempts to scuff the penalty spot in the seconds prior to Kane’s opener also left a bad taste in the mouth of many England players, as did some of the other behaviour from the South American team and its coaching staff.
All this considered, you can probably understand John Stones’ reaction to Eric Dier’s winning penalty. Since the game, some England fans have noticed how the Manchester City defender seemed to make a point of looking directly at the Colombian players as he runs away to celebrate his team’s victory.
Sir John Stones giving the Colombian players some I love this man so much 😭❤️ pic.twitter.com/VeB9tyLamp
— Max (@Max_Thomas98) July 3, 2018
Again, we’d love to show you the video, but Fifa regulations on this sort of thing mean we can’t. Instead, you’ll need to make do with these poor quality screengrabs of footage recorded from someone’s telly…
First, Stones’ focus is Dier and Pickford
Only for him to turn and make a point of screaming in the direction of the Colombian players for a couple of seconds…
England’s win means they will now face Sweden at the weekend for a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
