Four clean sheets at Euro 2020 reflect the players’ focus, adaptability and experience – and the coaches’ meticulousnessI have spent the majority of England’s Euro 2020 behind Jordan Pickford’s goal, observing how Gareth Southgate’s revolving and evolving defence has avoided conceding in four consecutive matches. It may be a cliche but goals win games while clean sheets win tournaments, and England’s defensive muscle is the foundation of their success.Southgate has ensured the defenders are well-drilled but what makes the England backline stand out is their communication and desire to play for one another. Five of the back six (including the goalkeeper) who started against Germany were in the side that lost to Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semi-final, so...
Like all Danes I feel proud to be represented by a team who have shown vulnerability and togetherness after their traumaI am proud to be Danish. Now more than any time before. To watch the Denmark players act the way they did, to see the way they shouldered responsibility in the heat of the moment after Christian Eriksen’s collapse and to see the way they cared for each other was incredibly admirable. It makes me proud as a Danish person but also as the captain of the women’s team. The whole country feels the same: immensely proud to be represented by these players and this team in this tournament but also in general. In that moment this tournament became bigger...
Offered a chance of redemption following the humiliation of the 2018 World Cup, the team failed to assert themselvesAn empire has fallen not once, but twice. This could have been Germany’s great reprieve, the searing statement that paved them a clear path to the final and a chance to smooth out the scars inflicted by their catastrophe at Russia 2018. Although it bore an altogether different hue to the humiliation at South Korea’s hands in Kazan, it was more painful in a certain sense: the Joachim Löw era fizzled out at an ecstatic Wembley, of all places, and the sight of a chuntering Thomas Müller stomping down the touchline after being substituted showed that ultimately there could be no quick...
Southgate’s men delivered a result to match the euphoric atmosphere of fans experiencing a rare taste of freedomThe fifth rendition of Vindaloo winds to a close. A can of lager is thrown into the air. By the time it lands with a spume of spray in among the thousands of fans congregating in Arena Square, another can has been launched skywards, and then another, and another, and another. Two hours before England play Germany, and Wembley Way is a monsoon of beer, sweat, rain, beer, songs, beer and hope.The mood is euphoric, not sour; festive, not hostile. There is the occasional lyrical tribute to the RAF but by and large the minority of German fans shuffling towards the stadium are...
All the goals Germany have conceded at Euro 2020 have come from diagonal balls into space and Raheem Sterling could be the man to exploit the weakness at Wembley“Gareth Southgate, the whole of England is with you!” Is it, though? As Southgate prepares to send his injury-free, defensively unbreached, quietly purposeful England team into the last-16 tie against Germany on Tuesday night, two things stand out.First, it is hard to recall such a talented, well-set England team approaching a tournament knockout tie so grudgingly praised in their own country. Welcome to England 2021, a place where even the football feels a little seasick right now. Related: Hitting on the counter is the smart option for England to beat Germany |...