BEngland can continue to dream of winning at Wembley Stadium in London. Under the leadership of captain Harry Kane, the Three Lions defeated the overwhelmed Ukraine 4-0 (1-0) in the first European Championship semi-final in 25 years on Saturday. In front of about 11,880 spectators in Rome, coach Gareth Southgate’s team won the victory mainly with a strong second half and ended the EM fairy tale of the Ukrainian surprise team. England will face Denmark in the semifinal at Wembley on Wednesday to have a chance to win their first major football championship since their victory in the 1966 World Cup.
Four days after the 2-0 match against Germany in the 16th round, captain Kane scored twice (4/50 minutes), defender Harry Maguire (46th) and recently replaced Jordan Henderson (63rd time) Goal for England. Especially the offensive end of the second half was convincing. Before the break, the popular team restricted themselves to defense after taking the lead early, making them the only team that did not concede a goal in the fifth Champions League game. The next surprise for Andrei Shevchenko’s Ukraine in the first semi-final of this European Championship and major championship is too few.
Although the England team has no home advantage in the game for the first time so far and has to give up British fans living in Rome due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is more support for them in the stands of the Olympic Stadium than for their opponents. This is obviously Provides extra buoyancy. In their first dangerous attack, the Three Lions Corps lived up to expectations. After Raheem Sterling passed the ball, Kane was on the court and led with his second championship goal.
Sancho appeared in the starting lineup for the first time
This broke the Ukrainian defense that coach Shevchenko had long stipulated. This played a role in the previous strong defensive British. For the time being, they left the direction to outsiders. It is still Dortmund, Jaden Sancho, who is about to transfer to Manchester United, did not appear at this stage, nor did he see Mason Mount. Midfielder Mount missed the 16th round against Germany because he had to be isolated after contact with Scot Billy Gilmore, who tested positive for corona.
The reluctance of the England team after leading 1-0 to encourage the Ukrainians to attack on their own. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was challenged for the first time by Roman Yaremchuk (17th). But the British defense is rarely really embarrassing. The Ukrainian of Sergej Kriwzow had to replace the core player (35th) in the injured five-man defensive chain, which did not help improve mood.
But for a long time, the British have been stingy with the scene in the goal area. It only becomes dangerous when it comes to the fast pound sterling. The powerful dribbling attacker from Manchester City also prepared for the team’s second chance through Declan Rice (33rd), who failed to defeat goalkeeper Georgy Buschcha. It wasn’t until shortly before the intermission that the entertainment value of the so far dull match led by German referee Felix Brych confidently increased. However, Sancho (40th) missed a possible 2-0 in his first truly eye-catching scene.
After the restart, the Ukrainians were caught off guard again. After Luke Shaw’s free kick, defender Maguire headed the goal to rewrite the score to 2-0. Only four minutes later, the Englishman once again proved his efficiency: Kane used another Shaw cross header to rewrite the score to 3-0. England’s strong performance in the second half was ended by Henderson’s 4-0. The Liverpool professional players are particularly happy. After all, this was the first goal in his long national team career.
“This is a good night, a good day for football. A grand game is waiting for us. But if we keep the momentum, we can do it,” Kane said confidently. England’s defensive head and striker Maguire was ecstatic and promised further success: “The semi-final is a huge achievement and shocking. We hope it will always be like this. We don’t just want to score half-finals. In the final, we still want to win the coup.”
