European Football Championship: England: The biggest disappointment of the European Championship is in the semi-finals

Keir Radnedge did not find it presumptuous to ask whether Gareth Southgate would be playing his last game in the event of a defeat. The British BBC journalist and author of widely read football books answered without hesitation: “Yes!” As is well known, things turned out differently on Saturday. Another shockingly weak English team managed to equalize against the good Swiss, which Radnedge noted with a benevolent shake of his head in the press box. After winning the penalty shootout, the “Three Lions” are in the semi-finals of this European Championship – and England will probably have to put up with their coach even longer.

Strange coach-media relationship

If you see football as a purely results-based sport, there are no arguments against Southgate. And England’s coach embellished this with plenty of pathos: “The games in this tournament are major national events with immense pressure – and we are right in the middle of it.” When he got to the press conference, he first took a long drink from the water bottle. He probably wanted to be able to answer fluently. But because he and the British journalists who traveled with him obviously have a strange relationship, he was only embarrassed once. The questions from the local press were aimed solely at the new quality of penalty shooting. In this regard, Southgate spoke of “new measures” that he had taken after losing the duel from the point in the European Championship final against Italy three years ago, which now enable the players to deal with the pressure better.

Nevertheless, England remains the biggest disappointment of all this European Championship. The criticism from home is massive. When a German journalist ventured on site on Saturday, the style of play in the previous games against Serbia (1:0), Denmark (1:1), Slovenia (0:0), Slovakia (2:1) and now against Switzerland To question it, Southgate responded with a counter question: “Are you sure they don’t come from England?” The coach expressly didn’t want to say anything more.

An English ray of hope

Two lucky wins, three draws, five bad games – that’s how you can get into the top four teams in Europe. In the quarterfinals, the score was 1-1 after 120 minutes thanks to goals from Swiss Breel Embolo and Bukayo Saka. England’s goalscorer was named man of the match. After five very confidently converted penalties – and one saved by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford – he said: “We have the best penalty takers and are very proud of ourselves.” The Arsenal London winger, who had also had disappointing performances in previous games, was the bright spot in the English team this time. Inspired by this, he looked ahead: “We now have two games ahead of us that can change our lives.”

Next Wednesday in Dortmund it’s all about making it to the final. In order to be able to win the semi-final against the Dutch, “we have to do better,” said Saka. The upcoming opponents also had a bad start to the European Championship. After an arduous group phase, the Dutch are increasingly turning out to be a tournament team – after a 3-0 win in the round of 16 against Romania and a 2-1 win on Saturday evening against a strong Turkish team, they are going into the semi-finals as favorites.

Criticism of tactics and system

The English goal by Saka was again an individual effort. The team set up by Southgate has never managed to put an opponent under pressure as a team. Star striker Harry Kane only had 26 ball contacts in almost 120 minutes against the Swiss. This is not inexplicable given what is actually a strong offensive line with Kane, Saka, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden. It’s all about tactics and systems. And because this is the coach’s responsibility, the demands at home for his replacement are entirely justified. The implementation has become somewhat less likely with the semi-finals. England will probably have to endure their team’s sluggish, passive and harmless game for a little longer. And with Southgate, a national coach who seriously compared his team with Spain on Saturday and concluded: “We played very well.”

The English supporters have now adjusted their demands. In the group game against Denmark, they said goodbye to their team with a whistle and quickly left the stadium after the final whistle. Now they endure the achievements relatively calmly, celebrate the success and themselves – in the stadium and the city centers. They conquered Frankfurt am Main during the group phase, and now the English fans are having big parties in Cologne. From there, thousands of people set off towards Dortmund on Wednesday.