Assured performance puts England into the last eight of the World Cup
England progressed to the Quarter Final of the World Cup in Qatar earlier this evening with a 3-0 win over Senegal.
Goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka set up a date with France next Saturday.
Gareth Southgate decided to drop Marcus Rashford from the starting line up despite the Manchester United man scoring twice in the previous game against Wales. Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka started the game up front with Harry Kane.
Senegal pressured the England players right from the start of the game. The Three Lions were barely given any time to play the ball around without a Senegalese opponent closing him down immediately.
In fact, it was the African champions who had the first couple of opportunities in the first half. One was blasted over the bar from a few yards out and the second from Diab was pushed away by Jordan Pickford.
Jude Bellingham set Jordan Henderson up with a simple tap in for the opening goal in the 38th minute.
The Dortmund star then had a large part to play in England’s second goal in first half injury time. He powered through the Senegal midfield before flicking the ball forward to Phil Foden.
The Manchester City man side-footed a first time ball to Harry Kane who ran through and fired low into the far corner of the net, seconds before the half time whistle was blown.
Eleven minutes after half time, England were three goals up.
Yet again Jude Bellingham was at the forefront of the move, picking up a loose ball and running down the left wing.
Bellingham spotted Bukayo Saka racing into the box and played a low ball into the penalty area. The Arsenal forward dinked the ball over the onrushing Senegal goalkeeper who was rapidly closing in.
The remainder of the second half was almost like a testimonial. Jude Bellingham and John Stones were replaced by Mason Mount and Eric Dier in the 75th minute. Jordan Henderson then came off for Kalvin Phillips with eight minutes left.
The game next weekend will be a very tough contest against the reigning World Champions France. The thought of Kylian Mbappe running rings around our defence is terrifying. He played very well against Poland earlier on today and scored two fine goals.
Olivier Giroud will also provide a significant problem and coping with those two will be the first real test of the tournament for our back line.
If we can play as well as we have going forward, no doubt we will be able to get on the scoresheet against Didier Deschamps’ men. The key issue is whether we can hold tight at the back and don’t concede. At least Gareth Southgate was a former defender so he knows a thing or two about that!
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