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9 hours ago
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Key events
“Am I the only one not really buying all this altitude stuff?” Asks Liam Crowley. “It’s an advantage, sure but they still have to, you know, play football? They’ve got a Championship striker up front, a recently relegated Championship centre half and presumably had the same altitude advantage when they struggled past two very poor teams in South Korea and South Africa. They looked better against Ecuador, but I’m still choosing our squad over theirs.”
Yes but this is a really good England squad at sea level. Plus it is a team that is know for its physicality and speed, something that will be difficult to produce in tougher conditions.
Gary Naylor emails in: “Everyone who watches Grand Tour cycling knows that once the road goes above 2000m, only the specialists survive. It’s like bowling above 90mph - it becomes a different game. Not sure England can do it on Monday - not sure they should be expected to with so little preparation time. They’ll need oxygen in the hydration breaks and I hope they’re sleeping in hyperbaric chambers now!”
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England captain Harry Kane knows his side cannot expect to win the World Cup without passing tests like their last-16 tie with Mexico in Mexico City.
Kane saved England from one of their most embarrassing results in history as two goals in the final 15 minutes earned a 2-1 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo in the last 32 in Atlanta.
Thomas Tuchel’s men were 15 minutes away from going home, instead they will now head to the host nation for a game at altitude on Sunday night where their credentials for winning the tournament will come under their biggest examination yet. Kane knows if he has any chance of lifting the trophy in two and a half weeks then England need to prevail.
“I want to enjoy this one, because I know there’s another extremely tough game coming in four days,” Kane said. “Mexico, in Mexico, is as big as it gets maybe in the World Cup. The atmosphere is going to be incredible. It’s going to be tough for many different reasons but ultimately, if you want to be world champions, you have to go through tough games, good teams, Mexico at home.
“We have to be ready but for now I just want to enjoy this moment, I want to recover, relax, and then obviously the focus will turn pretty quickly onto that one on Sunday. They’ve obviously won every game so far in the tournament, but they’re playing at home. The fans will be right behind them so we’ll have to be ready for it, no doubt, but we spoke about our quality and being ourselves in every game.” PA
After Senegal blew a late lead against Belgium to go out of the World Cup, midfielder Pape Gueye said he would not play for the team while the coaching staff stays.
Senegal led 2-0 after 85 minutes in the round of 32 game but gave up two goals before the 90th minute and ended up losing 3-2 to a penalty awarded deep in extra time.
Gueye posted on Instagram that “as long as it’s this technical staff in place, I will take a break from the national team.” The 27-year-old Villarreal player, who scored two goals in Senegal’s 5-0 group-stage win over Iraq, did not mention coach Pape Thiaw.
A tough year for Senegal already saw its Africa Cup of Nations title won in January — on Gueye’s extra-time goal against Morocco — overturned in an unprecedented appeal case.
Then, Thiaw took his team off the field after host nation Morocco was awarded a stoppage-time penalty when the score was 0-0. Play resumed after a 15-minute delay and Morocco’s penalty was saved.
When Morocco appealed post-game disciplinary rulings, judges for the Confederation of African Football ruled Senegal should default the game and suspended Thiaw for five games in the next edition of the competition.
Senegal is awaiting its appeal hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. AP
Tim gets in touch: “I recall staying up for South Korea v Bolivia in USA 94. The day before my maths GCSE exam, but I was determined to continue my run of not missing a game. My reward? A turgid 0-0. Still passed the exam, though.”
With England set to kick off at 1am BST on Monday. I must ask … what is the latest you have stayed up on a school night for a sporting event?
Dan P writes: “I know it’s tedious to moan about refereeing, but I do think the overall standard of officiating at this World Cup has been pretty poor. There’s been a fair number of genuinely head-scratching moments, and they somehow they seem to have contrived a way to make VAR even more useless. Which is quite the achievement, when you think about it.”
Aye. I agree but I’ve been reticent to say it out loud.
There is a bit of hype around Mexico’s Gilberto Mora but whether the teenager is the right man to face England is up for debate. He is technically very gifted but may struggle physically against a team like England, and, thinking long term, in the Premier League.
I wonder which of the England squad have played at The Hawthorns, the highest ground in the top four divisions in England. I am not sure sitting at 168m above sea level it is comparable to the 2,000m they will be forced to play in in Mexico.
Thomas Tuchel believes England’s inability to adapt to the altitude in Mexico gives the co-hosts a “huge advantage” heading into this weekend’s crunch World Cup last-16 clash.
Having topped Group L with victories against Croatia and Panama sandwiching the stalemate with Ghana, it looked like Sir Gareth Southgate’s successor would fall at the first hurdle of the knockouts.
Brian Cipenga’s early strike and an exceptional display from DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi had England facing a round-of-32 exit every bit as humiliating as the Euros loss to Iceland a decade ago.
But Harry Kane, a member of that defeated side, scored twice in a 2-1 turnaround that sets up an unmissable encounter against Mexico, where the challenges include playing more than 2,000 metres above sea level.
“I think the heat and the humidity will not be the problem for us,” boss Tuchel said ahead of the trip to Mexico City. “We are used to that. We are used to that from training times and our prep camp in Florida.
“My understanding is that we cannot adapt to the altitude. That is just a huge advantage that Mexico will have. It just takes too much time. We have only three days in between this match. This is physically just not possible to adapt to the altitude, which is quite high.
“We knew that before, so this is just something, it’s just a disadvantage, with which we will have to deal, and I think we showed the attitude that we are ready for that, and from there we go.” PA Media
Bill emails: “I feel moved enough to put forward a three sentence argument on the first half penalty decision
“Yes, going by the rule book, it more than likely should have been given. However, I think not giving it is the right thing to do because strikers can, and do as Kane did, go down knowing they swap out a half chance of a goal to a near certainty of one.
“I think there’s more benefit to the game by not giving these as penalties, as scoring is rightfully hard enough as it is, and a goalkeeper’s thrilling heroics diving at the feet of a striker is one of the more iconic football images that we need more of.
“Still, England need to get a stomp on over national borders to win in Mexico, and best of luck to them.
“Finally, Senegal were robbed last night. Gutted for them.”
Sid Lowe has been having a natter with Spain’s Fabian Ruiz before they face Austria.
Spain are leaving their base behind and heading to Los Angeles and, if all goes well, from there to Dallas. They do so with more doubts than there were before the World Cup started. Well, Fabián Ruiz says, maybe on the outside: inside, at the training ground where the last session has just finished before they fly west, it is a little different.
In case you want a summary of how Belgium 3-2 Senegal went, I will provide post-match quotes from the coaches.
“Senegal deserved to win,” Belgium’s Rudi Garcia said. “But, I am happy it was us.”
“It is a cruel loss, as we were good in the game,” Senegal’s Pape Thiaw said. “We had the advantage. We were leading 2-0. However a football match is not an 85-minute one. Belgium came back, and we were not able to deal with that ... We must congratulate Belgium as they progress.”
Krishnamoorthy emails: “The two African nations would feel cheated today. At least Congo can go knowing that one Harry Kane was a man possessed last night and turned in a supernatural performance but Senegal were certainly the better team yesterday. Am still glad it did not go to penalties. Did the Three Lions practice on Ben Nevis?”
Raphaël Jucobin
The flaws in this France team are difficult to spot. Aside from a few defensive lapses, none of which the Sweden attack could exploit, France turned in a performance that consolidated their status as tournament favourites. Even if there had been problems at the back, the overriding sentiment is that France’s free-flowing attacking quartet more than make up for any of their teammates’ shortcomings.
Mile Jedinak never missed a penalty when playing for Australia and scored from the spot three times at World Cups, to be well-placed to pass on advice as an assistant coach with the men’s national team. “It’s the familiarity of it and understanding what makes you feel in that moment [that] you have the right solution in that moment, you’ve got the tools to be able to deal with whatever’s being thrown at you,” he said.
And I appreciate all this has been forgotten because England won but Harry Kane should have been awarded a first-half penalty. When a goalkeeper slides and does not get the ball, of course the forward is going to take the contact. Kane is just being punished for being as clever as the officials desire.
Maurico Pochettino was rather unhappy with Folarin Balogun’s dismissal. The striker painfully caught the Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic on the ankle but it was a complete accident with two players going for the ball.
To me it looked like another occasion that shows up an official’s lack of understanding of football. It it is a tangle of legs with two players focused on winning the ball. The problem of having so many replays of an incident and not really understanding how the body or mind works.
“Never was this a red card. Watching it on TV, never was there intention to step (on) the player,” Pochettino said. “That was a normal action in football. That happened by accident and it’s never intentional. That is why for me it was never a red card.”
Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the very few players who are older than me at this World Cup. They do not make me feel young.
They meet later in the round of 32.
Philipp Lahm
Our columnist Philipp Lahm reviews the mediocrity of the German national team.
I am stunned. Germany have been eliminated early from a World Cup for the third time in a row. I need time to recover from this. The key word that needs to be discussed is continuity – something the national team have lacked for a decade. German football hasn’t decided how it wants to play. There are constantly new ideas, and time and again new players in new positions. Julian Nagelsmann has experimented too much, and not just during this tournament. Yet developing a team takes years.
Where would England be without Harry Kane? Out of the tournament is the simple answer. He will be getting into his teammates, demanding an improvement, otherwise the round of 16 could be this side’s last hoorah.
England will face Mexico at 1am BST on Monday morning. Thomas Tuchel is more of a fun uncle than responsible parent it would seem. I am not 100% sure how adults would function on little sleep, let alone the kids.
Ben Fisher
Ben Fisher had a quiet night in Seattle … not!
This time Senegal’s players did not depart the field prematurely owing to a burning sense of injustice, as they did in the Africa Cup of Nations final in January, but they did exit another knockout match aggrieved after Belgium advanced to the last 16 deep in extra time. The winning goal, a nerveless Youri Tielemans penalty which capped an extraordinary comeback from 2-0 down, came with 124 minutes and 44 seconds on the clock, cementing its place as the latest goal in World Cup history.
In the end, England were just about good enough but left no one thinking they could go all the way. Thomas Tuchel made some bold squad selections and they are starting to feel incorrect at this stage.
See what was said in Atlanta …
David Hytner’s report.
Harry ‘the shark’ Kane.
Ed Aarons on player ratings duty. The defence do not come out of it well.
Barney Ronay on Harry Kane.
Jacob Steinberg on avoiding disaster.
And the whole game in picture form. Some sad, some happy.
The Belgians will play USA after Mauricio Pochettino’s side saw off Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Alexander Abnos was on report duty.
Balogun’s sending off was somewhat controversial.
Pablo Iglesias Maurer on an up and down night for the Monaco striker.
And plenty of pics.
Preamble
What a fun night of knockout football it was. Harry Kane dragged England through on an unconvincing night for Thomas Tuchel. It was all quite pedestrian against DR Congo but when you have one of the world’s best striker’s leading the side, anything is possible. The match provided more questions than answers, and many of the former will be posed to Tuchel before facing Mexico on Sunday/Monday, depending on where you are in the world.
In the second game, Belgium were calling the concierge and asking for their bags down to be brought so they could make a quick escape from Seattle. No one saw the coming on the horizon but it was ruddy impressive, albeit heartbreaking for Senegal. The African side fell apart after outplaying their European opponents. The late late late winner was seen as controversial but it looked like a penalty to me.
USA made sure all three co-hosts made it through but will ponder the cost of Folarin Balogun’s sending off, which will make him miss out against Belgium next time around.
We will also buildup to today’s fixtures.
Spain v Austria
Portugal v Croatia
Switzerland v Algeria
