England dumped Sweden out of the World Cup on Saturday afternoon.
England are into the semi-finals of the World Cup after beating Sweden 2-0 in Samara on Saturday afternoon.
After the drama of beating Colombia on penalties on Tuesday night, England headed to Samara for a place in the last four of the competition against a resolute if uninspiring Sweden side.
After a tight opening to the game, England did take control and struck the opener when Harry Maguire thumped a header into the net from Ashley Young’s corner, handing the Three Lions yet another set piece goal.
Gareth Southgate’s men showed a calmness and composure regularly antonymous with England World Cup displays, and made their dominance count when Dele Alli’s headed home Jesse Lingard’s clipped cross.
Jordan Pickford did make a number of fine saves, but England comfortably advanced into the last four, and now face a semi-final clash with Croatia in Saint-Petersburg on Wednesday.
For Sweden, they didn’t quite trouble England as much as they would have liked, but with no top striker – such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Henrik Larsson in years gone by – they were always going to struggle at the top end of the pitch.
One player who came on as a substitute against England was defender Pontus Jansson, with the Leeds United ace was thrown on with five minutes to play as a direct option in attack.
The Leeds hero took to Twitter this morning to react to England knocking Sweden out, stating that he’s proud of his team and his country for giving love to the people of Sweden, thanking fans for their support even in light of such a disappointing loss – but having been a cult hero at Leeds since his arrival in England, the defender may just be hoping that Southgate’s men go all the way this summer.
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