“Football’s coming home” blared over the speakers at Moscow’s Spartak stadium and ecstatic coach Gareth Southgate jumped into the arms of his support staff after England won a knockout game at a major tournament for the first time since 2006, defeating Colombia 4-3 on penalties after the teams were tied 1-1 after extra time.
For all the talk about games of darts at their Russian training base and a sense of togetherness between players from different clubs, the strongest piece of evidence yet that English football has changed came with victory in a penalty shootout. A brilliant save by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and a decisive penalty by substitute Eric Dier sent England through to a World Cup quarter final against Sweden in Samara on Saturday.
England had faced penalty shootouts three times at a World Cup before, in 1990, 1998 and 2006, and lost them all. History was against them when, after 120 minutes of play, they found themselves in that all too familiar position of having to decide who would step up to the spot. Southgate had an even tougher task to rouse the troops because they came within seconds of winning the game in normal time, only to concede a goal in the 93rd minute with Colombia’s final attack of the match.
“I am so pleased for everybody involved,” Southgate said. “We deserved to win and played really well in a big game under pressure. It couldn’t have been a crueller blow on the final whistle.
“Shootouts are tough. We had talked long and hard about owning the process of a shootout. They kept calm. The players have taken it all on board; it’s a special moment for us.”
After he had delivered broadcast interviews, Southgate returned to the pitch to applaud England’s 5,000 travelling supporters, who have been heavily outnumbered at every stage of their World Cup journey so far.
The 47-year-old has his own personal connection with penalty shootouts, having missed a decisive one against Germany at Wembley which sent England crashing out of Euro 1996. Until Tuesday night, England had won only one penalty shootout in seven attempts.
But at their training base in Repino on the Gulf of Finland and back home at St George’s Park, the squad has paid a great deal of attention to the art, even employing psychologist Pippa Grange to prepare the players.
Her work on the mental side of the game seemed to pay off as England regained their composure after the hammer blow of Colombia’s late equaliser cancelling out a Harry Kane penalty.
In the shootout, England’s Jordan Henderson was the first to miss, but then Colombia missed two in a row – Mateus Uribe hit the bar and Pickford saved from Carlos Bacca – before Dier delivered the decisive penalty.
The red and white clad Spartak stadium, 15km outside central Moscow, resembled downtown Bogotá an hour before the match. In front of a 24 metre tall statue of gladiator Spartacus, a middle aged couple were joined in their salsa dancing by an elderly man wearing a Colombia tricolour poncho.
It was the most intimidating atmosphere England have experienced so far this World Cup, the players being jeered as they entered the pitch for the warm-up. The vibrant Colombia fans belted out their national anthem and bounced in unison, swinging scarves above their heads.
Colombia’s Wílmar Barrios was fortunate not to be sent off in the first half after slow motion replays appeared to show him headbutting England midfielder Jordan Henderson as a fracas erupted around the awarding a free kick.
The penalty which led to England’s breakthrough was awarded in the 52nd minute as midfielder Carlos Sánchez, who had been lucky to escape punishment for previous incidents, wrestled the England skipper to the ground. It was a full four minutes before Kane was able to step up to the spot as the South American players harangued the American referee Mark Geiger.
Amid frayed tempers and the heat of the occasion, Kane kept a cool head, directing his penalty high and into the centre of the net.
The stadium shook in the third minute of stoppage time as defender Yerry Mina rose above the crowd and directed a powerful header off the ground and past Pickford. The Colombia bench celebrated as if they had won the match outright, the water carrier bursting into tears.
There was earsplitting noise from 30,000 Colombia fans who thought they were heading home and briefly had hope again as Pickford punched the goalpost in frustration and supporters in the second tier of the stadium climbed atop each other’s shoulders.
They might have been outnumbered in the stadium but earlier in the day, at Bistro restaurant on one of Moscow’s main shopping streets, England’s modest following made their presence felt. Fans from Reading, Morecambe and Stockport hung St George’s flags on the wall and recited the full back catalogue of fan anthems, from Vindaloo to Three Lions and World In Motion. They drank and chanted, increasing the volume as a group of colourfully dressed Colombians passed by. For them, and for England, the party goes on.
