England thrash Ukraine

 

It was one-way traffic and as soon as Harry Kane struck, it seemed that the fate of the match was decided. Ukraine were thrashed and England advanced to the semifinals in style.

 Southgate had called Jadon Sancho into England starting line-up for the first time of the tournament. Sancho agreed on a deal to sign for Manchester United during the week and now slotted into the team to replace the injured Bukayo Saka in the final third. Trippier dropped to the bench for the Three Lions to accommodate Mount, which saw England revert to a four-man defence.

Ukraine had made one change to their side that beat Sweden last time out. Stepanenko dropped to the bench and is replaced by Mykolenko, who started on the left side of a five-man midfield. Zinchenko moved inside to replace Stepanenko. There was no place in the starting line-up for Dovbyk, despite his winning goal in the round of 16.

The start was fascinating for England.

Ukraine have hardly touched the ball, but they were picking it out of their own net. Raheem Sterling dribbled down the left, glided inside, cut back, and played a sensational reverse pass down the channel, through a gap between four defenders, to find Kane. He was clear in the box, and whipped past Bushchan, into the bottom left.

So much for Ukraine’s plan to sit back and soak things up – England have gained the momentum in quick succession.

Ukraine was starting to recover from the early setback but in the final third they lacked the power to penetrate the English defenders and goalkeeper, that still had not digested nay goals in the tournament.

An offload from Walker presents Yaremchuk with the chance to surge towards the England box. He broke past Stones in the left-inside channel and fired towards the goal. Jordan Pickford was alert and parried the ball behind for a corner.

England had strung together a series of passes together across the field. Sterling dropped his shoulder down the left flank, and although his cross was cleared, still it travelled straight to Declan Rice. The West Han man hammered a strike at goal, which was well saved by Bushchan. Mason Mount latched on to the rebound, only to see his effort blocked by a wall of yellow shirts.

Sterling released Shaw down the left flank and he found Sancho with a low offload in the box. The winger shot on the turn, but his effort is well saved by Bushchan. The offside flag was raised against Shaw, but replays show that if Sancho had scored it would have been overturned by VAR.

Just after the break, within 10 seconds, Sydorchuk stood on Kane’s foot, and it was a free-kick 30 yards out on the right.

The free-kick was curled into the mixer by Luke Shaw. Harry Maguire rose the highest, on the edge of the six-yard box. He steered a determined header into the left-hand side of the net with Bushchan rooted to the spot!

 A few minutes later, Mount drove down the inside left. He slipped the ball to Sterling, who back-flicked towards Shaw. The full-back reached the touchline and stands one up into the centre. Kane was on point to head down and in, and England were in total control!

Mount curled a resulting corner towards Jordan Henderson, who glanced a header across the keeper and into the bottom left – his first ever goal for England.

And that was it – Ukraine would pack their bags and return home.

England reach the semifinals of Euro since 1996.  

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 04/07/2021 England thrash Ukraine

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Faisal Caesar