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  1. Yes, it did remind me of Bobby Charlton scoring England’s first goal in the 1966 World Cup Finals group stage after they drew their first match 0-0. The rest is history.
    Great match last night and what an atmosphere!

    • Her position was too far right but I think that was caused by the run of the England player to the right. It was the obvious pass and one England had made several times. From there, the keeper was always struggling. Wrong choice with hindsight.

    • And the defence should have closed her down quicker. Nonetheless technically a brilliant shot and a worthy winner. Felt for Spain, though, who also played some superb football and will certainly feel they should have won.

    • If Sweden win against Belgium tomorrow evening, they will indeed play England at Bramall Lane on Tuesday evening for a place in the Final. Oh dear …. my loyalties will be divided again. I’ll want both teams to win. Tricky.

      The England women’s team are, of course, the Lionesses. But I don’t think the Swedes have an animal-related nickname. Maybe they could be Älgkorna (the Female Elks)?

  9. It felt like a real moment. The hit, the noise, the commentary. I imagine it will be attempted by many girls and boys across playgrounds today. The hype for the semi final will be huge. Great stuff.

    As an aside I loved the fact the the equaliser was a ‘”get it in the mixer” tactic with the centre back playing up front. We are England after all…

  10. OK, I’ll bite. England were pretty dire first half barring the last 5-10 minutes. No ideas going forward, no shots on goal. Looked a lot better 2nd had but still had only 1 shot on goal up to around 70 minutes. A terrific proper old school England style equalizer and a great goal to win it. It’s fantastic and I hope they go on to win the tournament but a great deal of improvement needed. You can’t take that long to show up in games like that and get away with it too often.

    • I’d have to agree, at least in part. Team grit and persistence also count for a lot, and the Spanish team were not tested to the same depth on that score, being in front for a very long time They had a few star players who between them made by far the largest contribution to their attacking verve, and who maybe outshone the best of our players. We had way too many pretty shoddy, careless moments of lost possession, so that will need to be tightened up considerably. But it’s a team game and on that basis I think we deserved to win.

      • I commented elsewhere that it was like watching English barn doors against Spanish revolving doors. The ball thudding against English players while they adjusted their feet while the Spanish took the ball seamlessly on the turn. It has long been the way watching the Englsnd mens team. Interesting to me how in the women’s game as well England rely on spirit, endeavour and determination to overcome those with patently more skill. Different sex, same issues and approach. All I can conclude is that it has something to do with coaching, the weather and the pitches our kids learn on. I’d be interested in @bingo-little‘s take on it as a fan of the Spanish game.

        • Hi Dave – I’m afraid I don’t have much of any real insight to add here. I’ve not managed to watch much, if any, of this tournament and I missed the game last night because I was out playing football myself (witnessed a particularly horrendous dislocated kneecap – yecch).

          I have watched the clip above though, and the fault is with the defenders, rather than the keeper. There are two of them, and they both track the run down the right – someone has to step out and address the player on the ball, otherwise you’re inviting them to bang one from there.

          I’m probably equally not the person to talk about the differences between Spain and England in the men’s game, as I don’t really watch International football any more, for a variety of reasons.

          That said, my perception based on what I have seen is that in the last decade England have massively closed the technique gap – I think the FA went back to the drawing board at youth level after the Germans slapped us around the place in 2010. My recollection is that we more or less nicked aspects of the German performance plan that had lead to the coaching of the young players who made up that German side.

          From memory, the plan involved a reform of the academy system, as well as myriad changes to coaching approach. As a legacy of those changes (smaller pitches, less emphasis on raw athleticism, greater respect for possession), the England squad is now full of technically accomplished young players who could quite easily have emerged from Spain (Mason Mount, Phil Foden, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Reece James, etc). Guardiola arriving in the country has probably helped shift on a fair few dinosaur attitudes as well.

          I actually play football regularly with a bunch of kids’ coaches these days, so I get some insight into how the next generation are being brought through. It’s definitely a good deal different to what I was raised on – the drills are like a different sport, there’s much more emphasis on game intelligence and if you haven’t got good feet you won’t make it anywhere at all. They’re also the most over-competitive group of people I’ve ever played football with.

          Unfortunately, I don’t have a scooby how the women are coached, although I would say that national footballing stereotypes (sandy-footed samba merchants, nimble midfield tiki-taka artists, bleeding from the head never say die Churchill types) are usually pretty deep rooted and have wide turning circles.

          • The England team are technically pretty good. They use the width well and press when they don’t have the ball. It is, a little, Bielsa ball like. Last night was impressive because they couldn’t get it to flow right. But they defended brilliantly and Spain scored from their one decent chance. And then England started to impose themselves on the game. The pressure was brilliant for the last 20 minutes. And then Spain started to look frustrated and ragged. Great match that either side could have deserved to have won – which is often what makes sport great.

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