With England facing defeat by Croatia, the manager brought on the 18-year-old winger Jadon Sancho and the world turned
Never throw anything away. That was the lesson from this fun, late-breaking England victory. On an unexpectedly epic afternoon at Wembley, Croatia were beaten by an England 2.0 team who decided to muss their hair, throw the briefcase out the window, create a little chaos with long throws and free-kicks; and win, in the end, a bit like England 1.0.
There was a wonderful note of theatre about the finish. As the sun dipped below the lip of the Wembley roof England were 1-0 down then, at 1-1, five minutes from relegation for the first time in their history – and indeed at the very first opportunity. One slightly wild attacking surge later and England are now marching on instead to (it says here) Portugal for a semi-final against whoever December’s Uefa draw at the home of football (AKA the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin) decides to throw their way.
Written by Barney Ronay at Wembley
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/18/england-gareth-southgate-croatia-nations-league under the title “Blooming marvellous – Gareth Southgate throws off weeds of caution”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
