The young lions have had a major part in leading England through to the Qatar World Cup quarter finals, with some of the most impressive performances coming from youngsters such as Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham, Manchester City’s Phil Foden, and Arsenals Bukayo Saka.
Despite England finishing top of their group and making it through to the quarter finals, their performances and manager have occasionally come under criticism. With Southgate preferring a more conservative tactical approach, this has frustrated fans and pundits.
However, last night, Southgate got his starting XI just right as they faced AFCON Champions, Senegal in the Round of 16. As the team sheet was released, fans across Manchester and the country were baffled to see Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford dropped to the bench after an excellent spell against Wales, scoring two goals.
Although, all of Southgate’s wingers have contributed to goals and assists throughout the competition so far, and we could say that all of them deserve to start – but they can’t.
England’s starting XI vs. Senegal: Pickford, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw, Rice, Henderson, Bellingham, Foden, Saka, Kane (C). Excellent representation of our Northern football clubs performing on the worlds biggest football stage.
England had to work hard to break the deadlock. Senegal were resilient, well organised and pressed with intensity and at times looked to be man marking the forward line. They were excellent at closing spaces for the midfield and blocking the channels to the front three.
We saw Senegal put England’s defense to the test in the first half with the first scoring opportunities of real threat falling to the AFCON Champions. Everton keeper, Jordan Pickford made some game saving interventions.
Then in the 38th minute came a stunning flick from Foden that opened up space for England to attack the Senegalese defense. As Bellingham cut back to Henderson, the Liverpool skipper was arriving late into the box to finish off the move and put England 1-0 up.
England’s second came not long after in the additional minutes of the first half, and the Manchester star was involved again. As Bellingham charged through midfield looking to counterattack, he slipped the ball through to Foden who took one touch through to skipper, Harry Kane for him to score his first goal of the World Cup 2022.
Senegal made plenty of changes at half time to keep their competition hopes alive, to no avail. England made their final clinical move of the game on the 57th minute as Kane loses the ball, Foden picks it up from the toes of Senegal and glides down the left flank, holding off Koulibaly before slipping it through his legs to Saka who was waiting in the 6 yard box.
Saka put England 3-0 up, and Southgate made his move with some changes. Saka and Foden were the first to make way for Rashford and Grealish. Followed by Stones and Bellingham for Dier and Mount, and the final change saw Henderson hooked for Phillips.
The changes enabled the England coach to save the legs of some of his key players. However, the changes did slow the tempo of the game for the Three Lions and the final minutes saw Senegal on the front foot without any real goal threat.
What seemed to be a comfortable win, it certainly wasn’t all England and Senegal were a tough opponent for large parts of the game. But with some England youngsters sprinkling some magic, they were able to progress to the quarter finals where they will face reigning Champions, France.
France, and in particular, Mbappe have had tongues wagging and are currently ranked 4th, one place above England. France won 3-1 against Poland yesterday, who have been underwhelming through the groups and we perhaps even lucky to make it to the Round of 16.
Can the Three Lions sweep France to the side and make their way to the Semi’s?