“It’s coming home,” is the chant we have been listening to for years, but it never came back since 1966. Once again, England failed to touch the golden trophy as they lost the quarterfinal against the defending champion, France. Last night, France defeated the Three Lions by a 2-1 margin at Al Bayt Stadium. However, England had a golden opportunity to level the scoreline as they got their 2nd penalty kick. Unfortunately, Harry Kane failed to convert it.
As it happened
There are many stars absent from the France team due to injury, including Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kane, Karim Benzema, and many more. Yet France have a very strong squad depth in this world cup. In the match against England, France boss Didier Deschamps set up the team formation with 4-2-3-1, where Olivier Giroud played as the center-forward and Kylian Mbappe, Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembele played just behind him.
As for England, Gareth Southgate played his team in a 4-3-3 formation. He deployed the same squad as they had in the last 16.
Both teams started playing attacking football from the beginning of the game. But France had been successful in finding the net first. French midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni scored the first goal of the match. His powerful shot defeated Pickford in the 17th minute. After that, England tried hard to find the equalizer but failed. Therefore, France went to the break with a one-goal lead.
Coming back from the interval, The Three Lions became desperate to score. They highly pressed the opponents. Therefore, England got a penalty kick as Tchouameni fouled Bukayo Saka inside the box. England’s skipper Harry Kane took that kick and made no mistake. As a result, England leveled the scoreline in the 54th minute.
After that, both teams played very aggressive football. Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele looked very threatening to the Three Lions whenever they got the ball. But Olivier Giroud shocked England with his fantastic header. In the 78th minute, Giroud’s header found the net for France to take the lead.
It seemed France would win this game. But Theo Hernandez made an unexpected foul inside the box. The match referee, therefore, reviewed it and gave a penalty kick to England. Like the first one, Harry Kane stepped up to take this one. Unfortunately, the skipper failed this time. His shot was nowhere near the goalposts. After that, the Three Lions couldn’t find the net in the remaining minutes. Therefore, England lost the game and France have advanced to the semifinal, where they will play against Morocco.