Captain Kane, whose second-half penalty put England 1-0 up before Yerry Mina’s injury-time equaliser, believes England came of age last night.
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England goalkeeper Jack Butland has revealed the meticulous preparation behind their 4-3 shootout win – helped by Jordan Pickford’s superb save from Carlos Bacca – and how he feared Colombia keeper David Ospina might accidentally uncover their game plans.
Beat Sweden, and England has a game against Croatia or host nation Russian Federation to reach a first World Cup final since 1966.
“We were so unlucky not to go through in 90 minutes”, said Kane, who also converted his shootout kick along with Marcus Rashford and Kieran Tripper. That’s why I didn’t go there.
“I’ve never seen a game like this before and how they behaved”.
The Argentine praised England, saying they were favourites and had the advantage of having rested many players in their final group match as they had already secured their knockout spot early.
“It is true that I did not shine as I had wanted in England but that is part of the past”, said the 32-year-old striker. Decided on a penalty shoot-out, the World Cup drama of England beating Colombia would have been better without the ugliness.
If they are to reach the quarter-finals – where they would be facing either Sweden or Switzerland, who are also playing today – manager Gareth Southgate’s team will need to avoid any mistakes in their game against the Colombians.
England rested at their training base in Repino on Wednesday before starting preparations for Saturday’s match against Sweden in Samara on Thursday. “I thought there could have been several red cards in that game from what happened”.
He continued, stating: “I think we have to try and defend football and we should do a little more to try to prevent certain situations knowing that they may arise”. It was a hard situation to be in, but we have overcome it and we can be very proud of ourselves.
Colombia have a good recent record against European teams – unbeaten in eight games since Jose Pekerman took charge in 2012.
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After his side was shown six yellow cards, Colombia coach Jose Pekerman made clear his unhappiness with USA referee Mark Geiger. “We shouldn’t only look at Colombian players”. The vibrant Colombia fans belted out their national anthem and bounced in unison, swinging scarves above their heads.
