Culture Corner

On Saturday night, England took on Switzerland in the quarter-finals of the European Championships, defeating them 5-3 on penalties, despite what could be argued as a less than adequate performance.

Gareth Southgate clocked in his 100th game managing the England squad this weekend, collecting his 61st win for the national team. Southgate has come under a lot of criticism recently for his managerial decisions, but switched up his formation from 4-2-3-1 to 3-2-4-1, which gave England more attacking possibilities.

Bukayo Saka, who won a well deserved player-of-the-match, put on an attacking masterclass, and was constantly winning 1v1s on the right wing, and putting balls into the box. After Switzerland’s goal in the 75th minute, scored by forward Breel Embolo, Saka equalised with a stunning goal of his own just 5 minutes later, scored just outside of the box, off the post and in.

Although Saka was consistently playing balls into the box, nobody seemed to get on the end of them, especially captain and striker, Harry Kane. Kane was static off the ball, having only two shots, one off target and the other blocked. Has the world class striker lost his touch? Perhaps it is time for Southgate to give the younger Ollie Watkins a chance up-front, or maybe penalty scorer Ivan Toney.

After 30 minutes of extra time, the game was taken to penalties. Youngster and breakthrough player, Cole Palmer, stepped up to take the first penalty, and scored convincingly. Switzerland’s first penalty, taken by Manchester City’s Manuel Akanji, was saved by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. England then scored their next 4 penalties, taken by Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney, and Trent Alexander-Arnold, to win the shootout 5-3.

Of course, England fans should be ecstatic that we have made it through to the semi-finals, in which we face The Netherlands on Wednesday night, however the question still remains if we have it in us. England put their game against Slovakia to bed in extra time, hanging on by a thread with a last minute goal by Jude Bellingham, and with this game won by penalties, it certainly doesn’t fill the public with hope. Although we looked better going forward against Switzerland, they still have to figure out how to score more goals, if they are to win against a strong Netherlands team.