It was an honorable, narrow defeat and a nerve-wracking affair, the British newspaper The Times assessed Saturday’s 1:2 defeat of the England national team to France in the quarter-finals of the football championship.
“It’s impossible to shake off that nagging feeling that England are never good enough when it counts. Great teams find ways to win. English teams, Gareth Southgate’s teams, will find a way to fail nobly.” It is burntThe letter in the opening article titled “Pain and Forgiveness, It’s All Over for England. Again.”
However, the players and manager Southgate earned praise for fighting back in the second half from 0-1 down. “They showed resilience and confidence. They showed strength of character. They equaled the world champions,” highlighted the Sunday Times.
For manager Southgate, the tournament could have been a career highlight. After losing to Iceland at the 2016 European Championships, he inherited a squad that was nearly bottom, two years later he surprised by reaching the semi-finals at the World Cup in Russia and came close to the coveted final at the Wembley European Championships last year against Italy (England lost on penalties – note ed.).
Now the team was at its peak, everyone was fit, shooting and heavyweights like Brazil and Portugal were falling left and right, it was time for the champions. But Harry Kane’s unconverted penalty and Harry Maguire’s shoulder rebound conspired against England, who went on target after Frenchman Olivier Giroud’s header.
“We are eternal damsels. Fifty-six years of suffering. A wait so long that it may not really be a wait, but a permanent mass illusion,” wrote The Times.
Other British papers rate the match in a similar spirit.
The tabloid Sun published a photo of an unhappy Kane biting his shirt on the front page of the Sunday edition under the headline “Harry’s pain”. Despite the regret, the newspaper appreciates the courageous performance of the national team. On the website, he then cites research by the GlobalData agency, according to which fans have spent around 350 million pounds in English pubs drinking away their pain after the quarter-final defeat against France.
‘Broken lionhearts’ reads the headline in the rival Sunday Mirror. Another Sunday Mail on Sunday highlights that the players fought like lions to the end.
In player ratings, the Mail gave the top score – 7.5 – to young midfielder Jude Bellingham, who unsettled the French defense with his movement and passing after a slow start and also equalized but his volley it was saved by French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. After all, the British newspaper gave up to 9 points.
