{"id":70020,"date":"2021-06-30T14:59:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T14:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=70020"},"modified":"2021-06-30T14:59:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T14:59:44","slug":"england-through-to-euro-2020-quarters-as-sweden-take-on-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=70020","title":{"rendered":"England through to Euro 2020 quarters as Sweden take on Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sports Desk:<\/strong> England beat Germany 2-0 on Tuesday to reach the Euro 2020 quarter-finals and end decades of hurt against their bitter rivals as Sweden and Ukraine faced off to complete the last-eight line-up.<\/p>\n

Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock at Wembley with a quarter of an hour remaining and Harry Kane finally opened his tournament account to end the contest.<\/p>\n

England beat the Germans to win the 1966 World Cup final on home soil but their major tournament history has been littered with painful exits against them since.<\/p>\n

The Three Lions were eliminated from the 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups by Germany, who also beat them in the Euro 96 semi-finals at Wembley.<\/p>\n

The Germans, who have won the European Championship three times in their illustrious history, had chances to score, notably a first-half effort by Timo Werner and a golden late chance for Thomas Mueller, but lacked a cutting edge.<\/p>\n

England, who themselves looked short of inspiration for much of the contest, finally broke the deadlock when Luke Shaw crossed for Sterling to finish from close range.<\/p>\n

Mueller should have equalised when Kai Havertz's pass sent him clean through, but the Bayern Munich star rolled his shot wide and fell to the turf in dismay.<\/p>\n

Kane made Germany pay in the 86th minute as he finished off a lethal England counter-attack with a diving header past Manuel Neuer from substitute Jack Grealish's cross.<\/p>\n

That was the first goal of the tournament for the Tottenham man, who has been a shadow of the player who won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.<\/p>\n

“It's a brilliant afternoon,” England boss Gareth Southgate told the BBC. “We talked about bringing enjoyment to the nation really and afternoons like this are what that's about.<\/p>\n

“The players were absolutely immense, right the way through the team and the fans were as well. Only 40,000, but it's as good an atmosphere as I can remember at Wembley.<\/p>\n

“We played extremely well. I think we deserved the win, but I've had to say to them (the players) straight away, look, ‘I'm the party-pooper because if we don't capitalise on that on Saturday now, then it doesn't count for anything'.”<\/p>\n

England, World Cup semi-finalists three years ago, have been solid if unspectacular this tournament but they have yet to concede a goal and the draw is opening up invitingly for them.<\/p>\n

They head to Rome on Saturday for a quarter-final against the winners of the Sweden v Ukraine match, which kicked off later Tuesday in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

If they can win that game they would face the Czech Republic or Denmark for a place in the final, also being held at Wembley.<\/p>\n

– Loew exit –<\/p>\n

The defeat is a bitter disappointment for Germany and brings the curtain down on Joachim Loew's 15-year reign as Germany coach.<\/p>\n

Germany won the 2014 World Cup but crashed out at the group stage four years later in Russia and have now made their earliest exit at a European Championship since 2004.<\/p>\n

Loew, who is to be replaced by former assistant Hansi Flick, said the result was a “huge disappointment”, bemoaning his side's inability to take their chances.<\/p>\n

“The players are gutted. It's very quiet in the dressing room,” said the 61-year-old. “In games like this, it is crucial to convert all goal chances, which we didn't do, neither through Timo Werner nor Thomas Mueller.<\/p>\n

“I don't blame anyone. Normally Mueller would have put that away. It's unusual that he didn't, but these things happen.”<\/p>\n

Germany captain Neuer paid tribute to his departing manager.<\/p>\n

“Joachim Loew has shaped a great era,” he said. “It's very sad that it ends like this for him.”<\/p>\n

– France shock –<\/p>\n

As the fallout continued following France's shock defeat to Switzerland on Monday, striker Kylian Mbappe apologised for missing a penalty in the shootout.<\/p>\n

“I'm sorry for the penalty. I wanted to help the team but I failed,” Mbappe said on social media.<\/p>\n

French football federation president Noel Le Graet said Tuesday he “doesn't think” that France's early exit will affect manager Didier Deschamps' future, but that he would talk with the coach.<\/p>\n

In the quarter-finals, Switzerland will face Spain, who hit back for an epic 5-3 extra-time win against Croatia after blowing a lead in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

The other last-eight matches pit Belgium against Italy and the Czech Republic against Denmark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sports Desk: England beat Germany 2-0 on Tuesday to reach the Euro 2020 quarter-finals and end decades of hurt against their bitter rivals as Sweden and Ukraine faced off to complete the last-eight line-up. Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock at Wembley with a quarter of an hour remaining and Harry Kane finally opened his tournament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n