Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane came to England’s rescue on Sunday.
Bellingham scored an incredible bicycle kick in the 95th minute against Slovakia in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 to level the score. Less than a minute later, Kane scored the winning goal to send England back to win 2-1 and progress to the quarter-finals.
Slovakia took the lead in the 25th minute thanks to a goal from Ivan Schranz and defended superbly for 70 minutes. Bellingham’s incredible strike in the fifth minute of added time was England’s first shot on target in the entire match.
And not long after the match resumed, Kane gave England the lead with his second goal of Euro 2024. Officially, Kane’s goal came in the 91st minute.
Bellingham’s moment of brilliance was the start of a lackluster tournament for the 21-year-old. Deployed as a number 10 in England’s 4-2-3-1 formation behind Kane up front, Bellingham struggled to spark England’s first three games. But the goal showed why Bellingham is one of the world’s best midfielders and a key player for England.
England manager Gareth Southgate then replaced both Bellingham and Kane with more defensive players for the final 15 minutes of extra time. The cautionary moves resulted in Slovakia applying pressure in the final minutes of the match. But England’s defence held firm, setting up a clash with Switzerland in the quarter-finals.
England struggled to beat Slovakia
After Schranz scored, Slovakia knew what was coming; England would control the ball and gather around the goal. In response, Slovakia dropped two defensive lines in and around the penalty area, forcing England to come up with a solution.
England thought they had an equaliser in the 50th minute, but Phil Foden’s goal was correctly ruled out for offside. Foden was ahead of the last defender when he found himself wide open in front of the net. England celebrated with a sigh of relief, but a replay made official what was obvious to anyone watching in real time: Foden was offside.
Until Bellingham’s magical moment, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Euro 2024 would be the latest chapter in a string of high-profile failures for the men’s national team since it last won a major trophy at the 1966 World Cup.
England were favourites for Euro 2024 before the tournament, but were disappointing in the group stage, with the team scoring five points and scoring two goals in the three group games.
The five points were enough for England to win Group D. Winning the group puts England in an incredibly manageable group in the knockout stages, with Spain, Germany, France and Portugal all on the other side.
Sunday’s win over a Slovakian team lacking talent is more of a cop-out than a sign that this English team has what it takes to win Euro 2024. But sometimes all you need is a win in a single-elimination tournament. And thanks to England’s individual brilliance up front, that’s exactly what the Three Lions did on Sunday.
