England march on at the FIFA World Cup for the first time since Italia 90.
England defeated Sweden 2-0 in the quarter-final to book their World Cup semi-final place, the Three Lions controlled most of the game and were rarely threatened. Goals from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli secured the win, England took their time to get going and started the game very nervy. Neither side were looking to take risks early on, but in the end England dominated the game in Samara.
England were the world cup betting favourites to beat Sweden, although history shows how Sweden have sent England packing on two occasions before.
Sweden slowed the game down from the start, trying to nullify England’s attacking threat, England’s talisman Harry Kane didn’t have many chances today, but on 20 mins he had a lovely chance from outside the area which he snatched at firing wide.
Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was called in to the game late on and showed why he is England’s no 1 making big saves at crucial times to record a clean sheet, breakthrough international Harry Maguire started the ball rolling on the half-hour mark with a thunderous header from Kieran Trippier’s delivery from a corner, headed hard and low the keepers right recording England’s fifth goal from a set-piece at this World Cup.
Sweden Sent HomeMoments after half-time time, Dele Alli extended England’s lead on 58 minutes scoring another header from Jesse Lingard’s cross to the back post. Jordan Pickford rose to the occasion many times and came up big against Sweden, he thwarted three goal scoring opportunities in the second half. Sweden were hardly in the game in the first half, but towards the end of the second half in when they nearly scored, England will need to sharpen that up for the semi-final.
England’s Raheem Sterling had many chance to inflict the deficit and many fans will be wondering how he didn’t convert one of his many chances.
In World Cup history, this will make England’s thrid semi-final appearance, the last time England reached a World Cup semi-final was 28-years ago in Italia 90 where they lost on penalties against Germany.
England will now play either Russia or Croatia in the World Cup 2018 semi-finals on Wednesday 11 July 2018.
The game takes place at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, kicking off at 7.00pm.
Speaking about who they would rather in the next round, manager Gareth Southgate said: ‘Russia in Moscow would be an incredible game to be involved in but let’s see and let’s enjoy tonight.’
Captain Harry Kane added: ‘Whoever. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but it’s about us as a team. Whoever we play, we will be ready to go again.
‘It was a very mature performance in such a high pressure game. We knew we would have lots of possession but I thought we controlled it well and we moved it quickly.
‘We are delighted to have got the first goal from a set-piece because we have worked hard on the training ground and we needed Jordan (Pickford) to pull off a number of saves in the second half.
‘We played the way we said we would and we attacked the game. Now we are one step closer.
