“Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell were then both ruled out due to a positive Covid test result from Billy Gilmour of whom both had been in close contact with their club teammate after the game against Scotland.” for this game, after outrage from the fans, however he still didn’t manage to get any minutes, even though the attack were struggling. Two games into a major tournament and the usual criticisms continued. Thrown into the mix, Manchester City decided that this would be a great time to make a formal bid for England’s captain, Harry Kane and speculation also circled around Sterling’s future. I bet that would have been interesting news for the players to find out less than 24 hours before kick-off. You can just imagine the conversations between during training.
England secured qualification for the last-16 before playing their final group game against Czech Republic. This meant the result had no major influence on their progression in the tournament last group game, other than the win giving the players an extra day of rest. Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell were then both ruled out due to a positive Covid test result from Billy Gilmour of whom both had been in close contact with their club teammate after the game against Scotland. This was Southgate’s opportunity to rotate the midfield and give an opportunity to some players
that hadn’t received minutes. Pregame the main calls were for Jack Grealish and Jadon Sancho to both get starts. Grealish got his call-up and impressed with an assist, but instead of Sancho, Bukayo Saka got his chance to light up the field. And that he did, so much so that he won UEFA’s ‘Star of The Match’, and Sancho managed a short run around for the last 10 minutes. Raheem Sterling, who many fans wanted to be replaced, started the game and scored the only goal of the game, again. For all the criticism he has received so far, Sterling has proved his critics wrong and has been the nation’s only scorer of the tournament. Even better still, he has scored his first two goals in a major tournament less that 500 yards from the garden he first kicked a ball in. With so many different opinions and the heightened expectation, what affect does this have on the welfare of the players and their performance? Gareth Southgate's England will line up against Joachum Low's Germany in the last-16 on 29 June in front of around 40,000 spectators at Wembley for a fixture full of drama and steeped with history. From the Geoff Hurst hat-trick in England's 1966 World Cup final victory to the Gerd Muller strike which ended their reign four years later and the Frank Lampard goalthat-never-was in South Africa in 2010, this fixture has rarely been uneventful - as Southgate knows too well. The England manager had his own penalty saved in the shootout against Germany at Wembley which ended England's Euro 96 dreams at the semi-final stage. Revenge would be sweet. ◆ OTFF ISSUE 16 ★ JULY 2021 | 13