Before Saturday’s quarter-final, England had played all their European Championship matches at the national arena in London and had, apart from the 0-0 match against Scotland, gone undefeated through the European Championship tournament.
Ukraine’s path to the quarter-finals has not been as straightforward. After a group game where the team only took three points, and did not impress, they faced Sweden in the round of 16.
Two Swedish frame hits and an expulsion in extra time later stood Ukraine at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, ninety minutes from a European Championship semi-final.
But for that to happen, two things were required: That the team would stop Harry Kane, who in the end had to score a redemptive first goal in the tournament, but also that they would get holes in England, who did not concede a single goal.
When the referee blew the match, it took only four minutes before Ukraine’s chances went from small to microscopic.
England’s Raheem Sterling poked the ball between two backs and Harry Kane crashed towards the goal. At the last moment, he reached it with his toe and forced in 1-0 behind Bushchan in Ukraine’s goal. The Englishman had scored for the second match in a row, after starting the tournament with a plethora of missed chances and a described goal drought.
After the goal, England led the game against a Ukraine that seemed tired after 120 minutes of fighting in Glasgow, but they failed to turn the advantage into another goal.
But after the halftime break, it immediately narrowed. Only 55 seconds were played when Manchester United defender Harry Maguire reached the top of a corner, 2-0 to England.
Just five minutes later, the Ukrainian accident occurred again and England’s 3-0 goal was symptomatic of what can happen when a goal scorer has suddenly fled.
Harry Kane reached the top on a post from the left, but the nod went straight towards Bushchan. But the goalkeeper did not make it down in time and the ball slipped between the unhappy goalkeeper’s legs.
England played the match without Ukraine succeeding in threatening their lead. There was no more goal for the suddenly red-hot Harry Kane, instead Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson had to score his first national team goal when he nodded 4-0 in the 63rd minute.
The result stood out the match and England is on to the European Championship semi-finals. In that match, against Denmark, and a possible final, it is again London and Wembley that apply when the team tries to take a first championship title since 1966. Where was that final played? Wembley.
– Fantastic match fantastic evening. This is a big day for English football. We are on the right track. “We have done everything we needed to do, but we must not anticipate the events, we must continue to get better,” Harry Kane told Uefa.
National team icon Alan Shearer, who last played in championship football on English soil, hopes that this edition of England will ease the pain after the lost European Championship semi-final in 1996.
– Something special is happening. We started slowly but get better every match. My head tells me to stay calm, but my heart is looking ahead. Let it continue. What an achievement. What an evening, he tells the BBC.
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