morning.
England beat Switzerland on penalties to reach the semi-finals of the European Championships, and there are plenty of other facts I don’t need to tell you this morning.
Needless to say, it was another performance to endure rather than enjoy for Gareth Southgate’s team. Needless to say, Harry Kane was once again miserable and his presence was as negative for his team as Cristiano Ronaldo was for Portugal. Needless to say, despite having more possession and more shots, England barely threatened the Swiss goal.
And the last thing I want to say to you Arsenal fans (most of them) is that Bukayo Saka is great and his momentary quality has saved the team. I could go on about other things I don’t need to tell you, but who needs that much negativity on a Sunday morning? Today we need to focus 100% on Saka and what he did yesterday.
With England down 1-0 through Breel Embolo in the 75th minute, it looked like the curtain had fallen on everything we had seen up until then. The dull, staid nature of the game was exacerbated by Southgate’s unwillingness to change anything when some players were significantly below standard. Substitutions were disrespectful to players who were not considered. The goal forced him to make three substitutions, and perhaps a slight change in form had something to do with it. But I think all the credit for what Saka did goes to him.
He took a pass from Declan Rice and was just outside the box on the right, a position we’ve seen him in many times at Arsenal. We’ve seen him do this. Take charge, cut inside and fire a powerful and accurate shot that leaves the keeper helpless. It reminded me a bit of his goal against Man Utd last season (or the season before that??). Either way, a brilliant individual effort got England level. The celebration with Arsenal teammate Aaron Ramsdale was brilliant and the game went into extra time.
Switzerland looked the most likely to score again then, but they failed to capitalise on the opportunity. With Southgate making more substitutions, Saka was pushed to the left, and late in the second half he was the one who tracked down a Swiss cross into the box and made a superb save. As much as the goal highlighted his attacking prowess, I think that defensive moment did a great job of summing him up as a player. He is selfless, humble and not full of arrogance, allowing the team to do what they want. Not someone who uses pride and honor to do what they want, where they want. That is not Bukayo Saka.
And about the penalty. We all know what happened when he missed it at the last Euros and let’s not even recite it. Because as he stood there scoring England’s third goal, that ugly, vile, inhumane racist abuse must have been in his mind. We all hoped he would score, we crossed our fingers, we prayed (if that’s your thing), we begged our trustworthy man to score, but it was all up to him.
And as he showed for his club, he did it for his country. A great penalty that sent the keeper the wrong way, but if he had read it right it would have been unstoppable. Saka’s penalty came after great penalties from Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham, and was followed by two great penalties from Ivan Toni (whose no-look was both incredibly impressive and a little unsettling!) and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The pressure was on all of those players, and they did great, but Saka had more. It feels cliché to say there were demons to be slain. It’s too abstract. It gives too much of a pass to the real people who inflicted the wound. Nevertheless, the history was there, and now it’s here in real time once again.
He later said:
“You can fail once, but you have a choice whether to stand in that position or not, and I am the one who will stand in that position. I accept it. I believed in myself, and when I saw the ball hit the net, I was a very happy person.”
I saw Tim Stillman on Twitter last night point out that Saka’s response to missing a penalty for England in 2021 was to take responsibility for taking penalties for Arsenal. He doesn’t hide. He won’t let the dregs of society, online or otherwise, leave their mark on him. Since the Euro 2021 final, he has taken 10 penalties for Arsenal and missed just one. That says a lot about him, his character, his qualities, and especially in the context of this tournament where so much has been written and discussed about him and his position, and where the other elephants in the room have been completely ignored, what he did yesterday was really, really impressive.
But I don’t need to say anything about Bukayo Saka. But I just said it.
That means England will face the Netherlands on Wednesday, who came from behind to beat Turkey. It was a good header to make it 1-0, but it was an even better header to make it 1-1. It was the definition of a powerful header. The lack of defending allowed Gakpo to score the winner, but Turkey really came into it in the closing stages and were unlucky not to score.
More details on yesterday’s match will follow later this morning on Patreon via the Euro 2024 Pod. For now, enjoy your Sunday.
