England lost to France in the quarter-final of the World Cup on Saturday night after Harry Kane missed a late penalty.
For England, it was a tough one to take. France took the lead early on, which pushed England to play on the front foot and take the game to France. This benefited England due to their wealth of attacking talent, but they, unfortunately, didn’t quite have enough.
That’s the story of England’s recent tournament history, just not quite having enough to get over the line.
Fabrizio Romano, speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside via his Substack column, believes Gareth Southgate isn’t to blame, but this generation of talent has to start winning something.
“England were really unlucky, in my opinion. England were on the same level as France, who were big favourites at this World Cup. The performance was great – sad to see Harry Kane missing the penalty as he’s a true leader and he didn’t deserve that. I’d not blame Southgate, honestly. However, it’s also true that this team always misses on something and it should be time to win. My favourites have to be France now,” said Romano.
There’s only so long England fans can discuss how unlucky they were not to go further. With the talent England currently possesses, they have to start winning these major tournaments.
However, the likes of Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, and Bukayo Saka will have a lot more experience at the next tournament and with a freshen-up in backroom staff, it could be time…