Great World Cup sides of the past have been built around ego-free forwards and Sterling’s cunning is utterly irreplaceableIn the minds of those who watched them win the 1970 World Cup, Mário Zagallo’s Brazil still represents the fulfilment of all the seldom-kept promises of international football. The mere mention of their star players – Pelé, Jairzinho, Roberto Rivelino, Carlos Alberto – conjures images of suave magic under the Mexican sun. But there was one player, a little less celebrated, without whom their triumph would have been much harder to achieve.Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade, known as Tostão, was a 23-year-old centre-forward who had appeared fleetingly in Brazil’s 1966 campaign in England while still a teenager. Four years later he arrived with...
Managers of Belgium and England struggled in the Premier League’s long slog but are perfectly suited to the intensity and short time span of a World CupRoberto Martínez still lives on the outskirts of Wigan, his dormitory village on the edge of the Lancashire plain proving as convenient a base for managing Belgium as it was for his previous jobs at Wigan Athletic and Everton.It is already becoming easy to forget that the man who sent Brazil home early from Russia was practically run out of town while in his last Premier League post; certainly by the end of the 2015-16 season there were not too many Everton supporters sorry to see him go. It is quite a neat trick...
We rank the eight quarter-finalists in Russia with Roberto Martínez’s team at No 1 after their magnificent defeat of Brazil Would anyone have stood a chance against Belgium’s first-half evisceration of Brazil? Their front three were irresistible and in the process answered the lingering questions about Roberto Martínez’s ability to mastermind success on this stage. Martínez got his set-up spot on and, if he is similarly tuned into France’s weaknesses, his team has an outstanding chance of making the final – although Didier Deschamps will spy some susceptibility at the back, particularly when faced with pace. There will never be a better opportunity for this set of players, many of them at or approaching their peak, to confirm the promise...
Rare goal against Sweden can spur the midfielder to greater heights as England’s World Cup adventure continuesThe hour-mark was approaching when Dele Alli’s moment arrived. England had pinned Sweden deep inside their own territory, patiently sizing up when to deliver the critical pass as teammates manoeuvred themselves into position and flustered opponents sensed impending disaster. It was Jesse Lingard who eventually arced over the cross and there, the wrong side of Emil Krafth at the far post, was Alli to connect sweetly with his header.The midfielder flashed a glance towards the assistant referee for reassurance that there would be no flap of a flag, before out came all those dance routines and intricate handshakes that had been in storage at...
As England reach their first World Cup semi-final since 1990, take a breath to drink it all in and savour the momentThe red and white train just keeps rolling along. In the city where Russia’s space programme shot for the moon, England’s footballers have now entered their own near-earth orbit. There they go now, a little giddy but still upright, out there floating in their tin can, high above the world.It has been a month and a day in Russia, all the way from the fly pits of Volgograd, to Kaliningrad on the Baltic, and now on to Samara, a city lodged in the humid armpit of the south-east. But after Wembley in ’66 and Turin more than a quarter...