As England fans across the nation were expecting to see the solemn reports and images of their players wondering off the plane back in the country.
A certain Jude Bellingham had something to say on the matter, as there’s much to improve on, but England are in to the final eight.
A certain Jude Bellingham had something to say on the matter, as there’s much to improve on, but England are in to the final eight.
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00:00Will, coming off the back of an incredible game for England against Slovakia, it didn't
00:07need to be so hard, but Jude Bellingham stepped up in incredible style at the end to save
00:13England's tournament. Just a bit of a reaction to it, how it sort of went on and the feelings
00:20going through your mind and obviously England as a whole as well, because it was 30 seconds
00:26or so from booking their next flight back to the UK?
00:29Yeah, I mean, you look at it two ways, can't you? You can think through into the quarterfinals
00:35and you think this doesn't bode well for what's coming. England have had another favourable
00:40draw on the side that they're in, but to need a 95th minute winner from Jude Bellingham,
00:51it doesn't bode well, I don't think. The game started off frantically, didn't it, and
00:57Slovakia had the chances and maybe you thought, you know, England have struggled to break
01:01teams down. England probably should have done a little bit better in that period and created
01:05a little bit more and they didn't. Then obviously Slovakia get the goal and, you know, Gerrard
01:11Salke, reverse the tactics there. It was last chance to loom, wasn't it? Long ball, you
01:19know, throw into the box and got a little bit of luck and, you know, even Harry Kane's
01:24winner was a little bit fortuitous, of course. But yeah, Switzerland next. Switzerland did
01:32look good, didn't they, against Italy to knock the reigning champions out and it'll be a
01:38tough test, I think.
01:41Just quickly on Jude Bellingham, I mean, the headlines are all going to be about him this
01:46week and today, but it just shows, you know, top players can produce top moments like that
01:52and, you know, that is why he is where he is.
01:55Yeah, a great finish, wasn't he? As you say, he has a fantastic season at Real Madrid. He's
02:00been the blue-eyed boy, hasn't he, heading into tournaments and I think he'd probably
02:06admit he hasn't been at his best, maybe hasn't influenced games as he can do, which we've
02:11seen at Real Madrid.
02:13Having watched England in the first couple of games of the group stage, Gareth Southgate
02:17would have thought, OK, you know, this is not working. The system, the formation, trying
02:22to play players, in some cases, out of position isn't working. And so they had a game against
02:27Slovenia where they knew they were through and they could have experimented, they could
02:30have tried new things, but didn't. Essentially stuck with the same formation and tactics
02:36and made one change in the middle, thinking, you know, why won't it come? And it's as if
02:40Gareth Southgate, I don't think it's sort of on his own technical nous or awareness,
02:46he's sort of just relying on a moment to come. And that is what, luckily for him, at least,
02:52and luckily for the squad, he got. Because without that moment, I probably think he walks
02:58that night.