Quarterfinals: England versus France
A long history of war and rivalry meets once again on the soccer pitch. England numerically had beaten France 17 times in 31 games, but most of those wins were in the 20th century. Recently, France has been beating England more and more. They last met in the World Cup in 1982, where England won 3-0, but this was a different time.
France has smart players like Olivier Girou and powerful players like Kolo Muani — and then there is Kylian Mbappé. The French had a great streak leading up to playing England, and they did not seem to want to stop and miss the chance to win a World Cup back-to-back (France won the 2018 World Cup in Russia).
England, on the other hand, has the elite striker Harry Kane and solid defenseman Harry Magire. This will be a great match to see who is the better colonial empire — and maybe the better soccer team.
The game had a steady start with England wanting to get some goals before going defensive. France would be tough to beat, and they know it too. France did get a great chance at a goal when Oliver Giroud got a sneakily low header, but English keeper Jordan Pickford stopped it before it reached the goal. The pressure was still on England as they had French players surrounding them.
In the 16th minute, French Aurélien Tchouaméni took a pass from Antoine Griezmann and delivered a power shot from outside the goal box that Jordan Pickford, England’s goalie, just could not get to in time, leading to a French goal! 1-0 France! That was great passing and ball play by France and a shot no one expected.
Even with the French goal, England would not let up. They got many great chances that they did not follow through on, but they did get a penalty drawn in the box in the 51st minute. Kane, England’s striker, was selected to take the penalty kick and delivered a shot to the right that French goalie Hugo Lloris read incorrectly: he jumped to the left in vain. Kane’s goal tied it up 1-1.
From this point, there were even more close shots like a French 1v1 with Pickford, the goalie, that Pickford blocked and a sharp header that Lloris also blocked.
It was in the 77th minute that these attempts gave a team the lead. Giroud received an arched pass from Griezmann that he beautifully hit in with his head, straight for the goal. Pickford could not get it, and Giroud scored the second goal for France. 2-1, France.
An interesting thing about this shot is that it actually touched English defender Harry Maguire on its way into the net, technically making it an own goal. Neither Maguire or the rest of his team took it sitting down, continuing to create opportunities that led to another penalty in the 79th that Kane took again. This time, however, he missed by shooting too high and gave up a chance to tie the game. At that point, the game was in the hands of France, with England attempting to play catch-up. Even with 8 extra minutes England could not come back and it was a French win!
This was a game of many chances with not too many results. France, despite winning, was not capitalizing and scoring as much as they should have. England is a good team and has great defensive players. France worked around them and created time to score, but they just didn’t. Hopefully as they advance to play the winner of Portugal versus Morocco they make sure to work on finishing good shot chances. For England, it seems “it will not be coming home” this year.