England advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar this evening, beating Senegal 3-0.
Goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka set up a date with France next Saturday.
Gareth Southgate has decided to leave Marcus Rashford out of the starting line-up despite Manchester United scoring twice in their last win over Wales. Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka started the game alongside Harry Kane.
Senegal put pressure on the English players from the start of the game. The Three Lions were given little time to play with the ball unless a Senegalese opponent stopped him immediately.
In fact, it was the African champions who had the first couple of chances in the first half. One flew over the bar from a few yards out and the second was pushed over by Diab’s Jordan Pickford.
Jude Bellingham opened the scoring with a simple tap-in from Jordan Henderson in the 38th minute.
The Dortmund star played a big role in scoring England’s second goal in first-half injury time. He broke through the Senegalese midfield and fed the ball to Phil Foden.
The Manchester City man side-footed his first-time pass to Harry Kane seconds before the half-time whistle, who raced on to fire a low shot into the far corner of the goal.
England took a three-goal lead 11 minutes after the end of the first half.
But again Jude Bellingham was at the forefront of the movement, picking up the loose ball and running down the left wing.
Bellingham found Bukayo Saka running into the box and fired a low ball into the penalty area. The Arsenal forward poked the ball over the onrushing Senegalese goalkeeper, who was quickly approaching.
The remaining time in the second half seemed almost like a game. Jude Bellingham and John Stones were replaced by Mason Mount and Eric Dier in the 75th minute. Jordan Henderson was replaced by Kalvin Phillips with eight minutes remaining.
Next weekend’s match will be a very tough one against current world champions France. The thought of Kylian Mbappe hovering around our defense is terrifying. He played very well against Poland this morning and scored two goals.
Olivier Giroud will also provide a major problem and dealing with both of them will be the first real test of the tournament for our backline.
If we continue to play as well as we have now, we will no doubt get on the scoresheet against Didier Deschamps’ men. The key is whether we can hold tight and not give in. At least Gareth Southgate is a former defender so we know a thing or two about him!
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