A stroke and a heart attack in 120 minutes.
That is one way to describe the nail-biting meeting between these two teams.
Historically, England has never lost to the Swiss and has been in a penalty shootout before in the Nations League, but more on that relevance later. So to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the world, you best start perfecting the correct strips of the Dutch flag ahead of Wednesday. No French or Luxemburg flag is allowed.
England played their best game in all tournaments, which they had to give Switzerland a track record in the previous tournament. With the previous performance and later winners against Slovakia, they had to come out of the box fighting. The parks are coming from the teen superpower, Kobbie Mainoo, driving that ball forward. It seems like more players, like Rice and Bellingham, were involved in the game.
If a lack of results with a struggling Phil Foden and Trippier hard at work on the left, his non-preferred position left the left side vulnerable and easily marked by defenders. The first half lacked clinical action by either team in the attractive third, and neither goalie had much to save.
The Swiss dominated most of the second half, with Southgate 100 match in charge being his last. People like myself are questioning Harry Kane. He has had to take a more deep role. No goals were to be shown for England or Switzerland's performance until the 75th minute when Embolo got ahead of Kyle Walker to poke in Dany Ndoyes's deflection cross from close range. That is when every England fan's heart stopped. Was that it? Do we need another miracle to happen? Saka came through again out of position in an unfamiliar proper wing-back role and was able to level shortly after when he cut inside and curled the ball off the post from outside the box. The worrying issue was that this was England's first shot on target. Again, most South Gates subs were late with only 12 minutes to play. Can he predict the future of extra trims, or is it just plain strange? With Cole Palmer, eze and Shaw coming in. England kept fighting even when heading home, but fans say England has performed the worst. However, France has yet to score a goal from open play, only getting to the semis on penalties and their own goals.
Extra time was full of chances for Switzerland, and it felt like England was holding on to penalties, with some players feeling the extra time for the second game in a row. The chances came from Shaqiri, who struck the woodwork directly from the corner, and Zeki Amdouni, who also had a shot on target. Their extra time defining was shocking. Harry had another collision with Akanji, with Akanji pushing Kane towards the dugout, leading to him tumbling past Southgate; he was then subbed off; one would think this would be worrying with the possibility of penalties; however, the depth of the English bench is impeccable, and he was able to bring another penalty taker in toney
The big P word that no English person wants to hear. However, I was pretty hopeful as much as I could be supporting England. They have a terrible record at major tournaments, but they pipped Switzerland with their winning penalty shoot-out record. I felt this was the best chance for England to win the game.
Pickford added his penalty strategy to his water bottle, which saved the first weak Swiss penalty by Akanji. The English penalty takers, in this order, are Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, BukayoSaka, Toney and Trent Alexander Arnold. England scored 5/5, with every single one scoring. With all their unique forms, there is no look by Toney and the jump and pause by Palmer. But the stand out was the redemption for Saka after the last penalty he took for England ended in him being racially abused alongside Sancho and Rashford. The pride of the team and the beaming smile on his face showed how much that meant to him.
The moment Trent Alexander Arnold stepped up for that goal, my hands shook, and my eyes peeked through the gaps of my fingers. But that celebration and joy covering the country and the stadium, at that moment, was a relief. England can win on penalties in a significant tournament again, something managers before Southgate could not achieve. This was a very different England team that had to overcome their demons and the Euro 2020 final defeat's history, create new memories for their country, and not think about the past. Southgate, who missed a penalty against Germany in Euro 96, has taken England to win ¾ penalty shoutout under his leadership and go to their third tournament semi-final with only the quarter-final defeat at the World Cup against France, stopping it being four semi-finals in a row. England seems to be like cats and has multiple lives. Let's hope they have 11 cats like that. And we all kept singing Sweet Caroline at home and in the stadium.
The result was 5-3 in the shootout out, with England taking on the Netherlands on Wednesday at 8 pm.
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