England's second and final group game came at Bern against the hosts. This was an easy game for the Three Lions, who scored one goal in each half (from Jimmy Mullen and Dennis Wilshaw, respectively) to secure a 2-0 victory. This meant that after two matches, they had already qualified for the next stage, leaving Switzerland with no chance of progressing from Group B.
The win also meant that England finished their World Cup campaign on a high note; manager Walter Winterbottom could think about building his team for the future now that many players were going home at the end of the month. However, despite the positive result, England's performance was not good enough; they were outplayed by the Swiss from start to finish and never looked like scoring.
There was hope when Finland crashed to a 5-1 defeat against South Korea earlier in the day, but then Ireland lost to West Germany so there was only one place left for England to qualify for - the quarterfinals. They did so with ease as they beat Norway 3-0 away from home. That means that England will be playing Uruguay or France for a spot in the semifinals.
The match was scheduled to take place on June 26th but it was postponed due to rain delays.
Formation: 3-5-2 England mirrored Germany's 3-5-2 shape, and the two teams cancelled one other out for the majority of the first half. The Three Lions made the first notable attempts, with Raheem Sterling trying Manuel Neuer from long range and Harry Maguire hitting Kieran Trippier's cross wide. England won a free kick just outside the German box in the 31st minute, but failed to use it effectively.
England's best chance of the game so far came shortly after, when Jordan Henderson sent in a corner from the left side of the area. Neuer got his hand to the ball but could not keep it out of the net before it hit the post and was cleared away by Kyle Walker. It was England's only shot on target of the half.
Germany continued to dominate possession in the second half, but had very little chance of scoring until late in the game. In the 89th minute, Trent Alexander-Arnold crossed the pitch from the left wing into the center, where Christian Eriksen intercepted the pass and fired a low shot at goal that went under Michael Oliver and into the net to give England a crucial 1-0 lead. This is now the third time this year that England have scored in the last minute of a match to win it.
England's World Cup campaign in Russia came to an end with a 2-0 defeat to Belgium in St Petersburg, leaving the Three Lions in fourth position.
Team | Morocco |
---|---|
L | 2 |
F | 2 |
A | 4 |
GD | -2 |
The Three Lions were eliminated from the World Cup final after losing 2-1 to Croatia on Wednesday night. It was a rollercoaster ride, with England leading 1-0 after five minutes due to Kieran Trippier, but Croatia reclaimed the lead in the second half. The match ended in controversy when Harry Kane appeared to be brought down by Mario Mandzukic in the area, but no penalty was given.
However, the referee apparently didn't see anything of the incident and neither did the VAR team. In fact, they both missed it completely. As you can imagine, this led to some very angry fans who felt that the result was not correct.
There have been calls for FIFA to change their rules regarding penalties after this incident, but these changes would likely cause more problems than they solve. With that said, it's clear that more needs to be done to ensure that every incident is properly reviewed by officials before the game resumes.
Following the match, England captain Gareth Bales spoke about how he believed that Kane should have won the penalty and called for changes to be made to the way penalties are taken in football.
"I think there should be a change made to the rule where if someone pulls back another player's shirt then it should be a free-kick," he said.
England triumphed 6-0 and 7-0 over a combined Austrian and German team in the third and fourth matches, respectively, at Prague and Karlsruhe. The games were not considered official internationals by the English and German teams, but rather a chance for them to show off their skills before they fought each other later that year.
The first match was played on June 5, 1872, at the Royal Park Davenport (now known as St George's Field), London. England won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Edward Blyth. This was the only game of the series which was not part of a triple-header.
The second match was held three days later at the Prince's Lawn, Richmond. It too was only one game of a triple-header and was won by Germany 2-1 thanks to goals from Wilhelm Hitzlage and Carl Vogler. This was the only victory Germany had during their tour of England.
Overall, England dominated the series with five wins and no losses while Germany had two victories and one loss. However, it must be noted that both countries were still developing as soccer nations at the time so this was more than expected results from such young teams.