Diego Armando Maradona has slammed Federation Internationale de Football Association for what he called a “monumental theft” against Colombia following their loss to England in Tuesday’s World Cup match.
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But he was despondent when England won a penalty shootout, taking them into a quarter-final against Sweden.
A hardy contingent of Colombia fans, however, hung tough.
Yerry Mina’s 93rd-minute goal cancelled out a Harry Kane penalty during normal time, but England went on to win on penalties for the first time ever in a World Cup.
England beat Colombia 4-3 on penalties in a bad-tempered game that was nearly constantly interrupted with referee Mark Geiger booking six Colombians and two English players. Most keepers would have been happy to clutch it to their chest to let a few seconds pass to ensure extra time. Here is RT Sport’s Team of the Tournament so far.
But the excitement at Sweden’s progress out of the group stages, and now a hot ticket to the Sweden-England quarter-final on Saturday, appear to have proved too much for Löfven.
Uruguay’s success has been built on a solid defence led by Atletico Madrid pair Jose Gimenez and Diego Godin, with the old-fashioned strike partnership of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani doing the damage at the other end with five goals between them.
“We didn’t lose the penalties and that’s got to be the best thing from this”.
Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford spoke of researching Colombia’s penalty tendencies, and Southgate credited the 24-year-old and his staff for seeing them through. The defeat in that match meant England avoided playing Brazil, France, Uruguay, Portugal or Argentina until the final, but opened him up to accusations of conceding momentum and confidence. “They also learned how to shoot penalties”, he added.
However, he declined to say how the Labour leader would respond if invited to see England play in the final.
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But May’s interest in football is passing, not surprisingly since her local team Maidenhead United plays in the lowly Vanarama National League. This is a true leader, this is what the England team needed. “It’s something that brings people together on a very large scale and we need recognition of that and recognition of the importance of football in the country”. Yet the only goal the Spanish scored was an own goal following a set piece.
