2021,
On the eve of the European Championship final,
Queen Elizabeth
Wrote a letter to Southgate:
"Mr Southgate, 55 years ago I had the privilege of presenting Bobby Moore with the 1966 World Cup Trophy and I knew exactly what it means for a team to reach the final of a World Series for the players, the coaching staff and the support team"
"On behalf of myself and the royal family, I would like to congratulate you on bringing LinkedIn Gran to the final of the European Championship, and wish you the best of luck tomorrow, hoping that history will not only record your success, but also your spirit, dedication and pride along the way."
However, the end of the story -
Saka's flying penalty,
Let England fall in the penalty shootout,
Lost to Italy,
Football never came home.
Three years later,
Saka's long-range shot,
Save England from the future.
penalty shootout,
Saka scored steadily,
redeemed himself,
Saved England.
Will they be able to fulfill the Queen's last wish this time?
Southgate's 100th game in charge of England presented fans with the most Southgate-style game, dull and uneventful, the team was in a desperate situation, and suddenly a player stepped forward to give him a "life", last time it was Bellingham, today it was Saka.
In the end, England eliminated Switzerland on penalties with the most un-English ending to end this quarter-final. After all, England's penalty win rate in the past at World Championships is miserable (2-7), both in terms of winning percentage and goal percentage, and they have lost the most penalty shoot-outs of any team.
Southgate will of course also have Jordan Pickford to thank for saving Akanji's first penalty to give England a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win over Switzerland. Statistically, Pickford saved four of his 14 penalties at the World Cup and European Championships, double the total number of penalties saved by all other England goalkeepers between 1990 and 2012 (two out of 36).
Of course, this was not due to Pickford's luck, as his water glass, which was densely packed with the penalty habits of everyone in the Swiss team, was photographed by the media after the game. It is in response to the saying "everything is foreseen, and if it is not prepared, it will be wasted".
As many British media have speculated before, Southgate, who has fought four games, has finally changed to three central defenders, with Konsa replacing the suspended Guehi.
Bukayo Saka moved to his unfamiliar right-wing-back position, with Kieran Trippier – the temporary cameo left-back who has been the subject of fan wrath – still on the left, moving from left wing-back to left wing-back.
However, once the game began, fans found that Bukayo Saka was still playing as a right winger for most of the time, with Kieran Trippier still at left wing-back. Saka beat Abisher five times throughout the first half, the most of the tournament, with almost all of England's threatening attacks coming from the right flank. So the question is, why didn't Southgate bring Grealish?
England also had problems with a three-centre-back formation, reverting to a 5-4-1 formation when defending, and with Kane also dropping back, England's transition to an attacking formation was not as smooth as they thought, and they struggled to break through quickly and get close to the Swiss goal. At half-time, England had five shots on goal but expected just 0.28 goals
In the second half, England reverted to the criticised cautious look. In both the Euro 2020 final and the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, England took an early lead, but instead of trying to extend the lead, they played extremely cautiously and did not dare to attack for fear of conceding a goal and eventually losing the game. England today, as if they had made up their minds to drag the penalty shoot-out from the beginning of the second half, did not show any attacking performance in the first 30 minutes except for two shots on goal at the beginning.
So, the familiar plot happened, in the 76th minute, Ndoye swept in front of the goal on the right side of the penalty area, Stones touched the ball in the middle and failed to clear it, Embolo outflanked the goal at the back point, and Switzerland led England 1:0.
Southgate made immediate changes, with Eze, Luke Shaw and Palmer coming on. I don't know if it was really the luck of the south gate, or if his on-the-spot adjustment worked wonders, just one minute after the substitution, Eze and Luke Shaw opened up space for Saqqara on the left flank, and Saka found the only goal in the crowd and played a perfect shot, which was the first shot on target for England, England came back to life, and Southgate came back to life.
Of course, the rest of the game, plus extra time, England was still the same England, and the game went tepidly to penalties.
In the penalty shootout, Palmer, Bellingham, Saka, and Ivan Toney all hit the first four penalties, while Switzerland, because Akanji's first penalty was saved by Pickford, they could only hope that England missed the fifth penalty, but Alexander-Arnold, who came on as a substitute, refused to be the "man behind the pot" and scored the ball steadily! The Three Lions advance to the semi-finals!