"ENGLAND SINK LIKE A STONES" Daily Mirror

Netherlands Team

England Team

After the very long wait, England finally arrived in Portugal to play the semi-final of the first Nations League competition. It was in November 2018 that England qualified for this match and, just like the World Cup semi-final of last summer, it was to end in bitter disappointment.

The match was against Ronald Koeman’s Dutch side, Koeman is someone who England have had trouble with in past internationals, and it was no different this time. However, it has to be said that the England players did not rise to the occasion and they helped Koeman and his team in almost every way. As usual England began brightly, although straight away, it was obvious that the Dutch held possession much more comfortably than England did. Both sides made early mistakes, with the game being played at a high tempo. Declan Rice lost possession to Memphis Depay, but the latter’s shot was easily gathered by Jordan Pickford.

England looked very rusty right through the team. None of the players had played much football recently and it showed. Passes went astray and their build up was slow and laborious. More worryingly, The Netherlands had the upper hand in the midfield with Ross Barkley, Rice and Fabian Delph working hard but showing neither flair nor guile. Having said all of that the Dutch rarely threatened as Harry Maguire and John Stones looked fairly solid at the back, and then, on the half-hour, England took a surprise lead.

New Dutch ‘wonderkid’, Matthijs de Ligt, mis-controlled the ball just inside his own area and Marcus Rashford was on it in a flash to rob de Ligt, only for the defender to bring Rashford down with a late tackle. A definite penalty. Up stepped the ice-cool Rashford to send the goalkeeper the wrong way. Taking the lead in a semi-final is the easy bit, the next bit might prove a little harder for England.

Before half-time both sides had chances. On 35 minutes, Ryan Babel hit a long shot that Pickford fumbled away, the goalkeeper recovering to gather the ball before a Dutch player could pounce on the loose ball. Two minutes later Jadon Sancho sent Rashford in for another chance, but that was snuffed out by a fine block by Denzel Dumfries. Delph then shot straight at the Dutch keeper, Jacobus Cillessen, before Dumfries was booked for flattening Ben Chilwell, not for the first time the big defender had used strong-arm tactics. England reached half-time with their lead intact but Gareth Southgate had plenty to ponder on before the restart.

Harry Kane came on for the injured Rashford for the second-half and once again, England began the half well. Indeed, on 54 minutes the game could have been settled. A fine cross from the left by Chilwell presented Sancho with a sitter, but the youngster’s close-range header was straight at Cillessen and the keeper saved. What a chance, and what a miss.

Almost immediately, sloppiness by Kyle Walker, losing possession to Depay, almost cost England a goal. Pickford blocked Depay’s first effort and then both England players watched in relief as Depay scuffs his attempted follow-up.

The Netherlands were dominating possession as England seemed content to sit back and defend in numbers. But, when England do that it inevitably brings them more trouble, and sure enough, in the 73rd minute they conceded a poor goal. It came from a corner, and the marking was non-existent as de Ligt made up for his earlier blemish to rise above Walker and Stones to power home an unstoppable header. Six minutes later and the Dutch should have taken the lead as good work down the right gave Donny Van de Beek a great chance. Luckily for England he miscued over the bar.

As the clock ticked into the last ten minutes of normal time, England began to look stronger and with just seven minutes to go it seemed that they had snatched a winning goal. A fine move saw Chilwell and Raheem Sterling combine to feed substitute Jordan Henderson. The midfield player’s precision pass found another substitute, Jesse Lingard, and the Manchester United tucked the ball beyond Cillessen and began joyous celebration. As the England fans and players basked in the glory, sinister goings on off the field suddenly brought an abrupt end to the moment. V__A__R!!!

It was by far England’s best move of the match, but by the tip of Lingard’s toenail, the player was deemed offside by the Very Annoying Review, and the referee gave a free-kick to the Dutch.

Kane’s shot on the turn flew just wide and then an awful blunder by Maguire in injury time almost let in Depay, but the Dutchman completely fluffs another great chance presented to them on a plate by England. Will they never take one of these gifts? Well, let’s see. There was still time for Sterling to curl a shot cutting in from the left to scrape the crossbar, but inevitably perhaps, there would be extra-time.

At the end of normal time England had their best spell and it augered well for the extra-time. However, it was the Dutch who re-took control somewhat and they were pressing for a goal. Then, in the seventh minute of the extra period England committed Hara-Kiri once too often! They had already tried several times to gift a goal to the Netherlands and this time it was John Stones who made the blunder to end all blunders. Barkley pfaffing around, back to Maguire, more pfaffing around, and back to Stones. The Manchester City defender has been encouraged by Pep Guardiola to play the ball out from the backer since Stones has played under him. I, for one, wish he hadn’t listened to his manager and hoofed the ball upfield! Instead, Stones made ‘pfaffing around’ an art form! Give the ball to Depay, why don’t you? And that is exactly what he did. Pickford almost saved Stones’ bacon with a fine save from Depay, but the ball bounced free and as Quincy Promes and Walker challenged the ball squirmed in off the England player for an own goal. What an absolute calamity!

No matter what happened after that the team were beaten by that awful moment. Pickford made another fine save from Depay moments later and although there was a little bit more about England in the second-half of the extra period, there was no coming back. Indeed, England were not content with gifting a goal through Stones, they then did it again with six minutes left. This time Maguire, Stones and Barkley were the guilty men. Barkley’s pass to Depay was so good it would seem that Depay was wearing a white shirt. Depay took possession, laid the ball to Promes and it was 3-1 with the greatest of ease. And that was that. No England in the final—.again, and so many questions for Southgate to ponder on. It is all so frustrating.

Right, and this is me calming down a little, it has to be said that the Netherlands were the better side and as Pickford was our busiest and best player, they probably deserved to win. I’m just disappointed that a) we didn’t play our best team and b) we gave them the sort of chances that we never seem to get given by the teams we play against. Like I said, so frustrating.
   

Source Notes