Can one moment change everything? Not just this one game, but the entire tournament? “Maybe we needed that,” said Jude Bellingham. In the style of a comic superstar, the 21-year-old saved England from being eliminated from this European football championship. When he scored the 1-1 draw against Slovakia with an overhead kick from eight meters and saved his team in the round of 16 on Sunday evening and went into extra time.
It is one of the greatest comebacks in the history of English football. Thirty seconds before the end of the match. Thirty seconds before the end. Thirty seconds before the end of the Southgate era. “30 seconds and we would have flown home and had to listen to all that nonsense,” said Bellingham. “I’ve scored a lot of beautiful goals, a lot that meant a lot to me personally. But this is one that can change the mood.” How was this crazy turn of events possible in this match?
At 7:53 p.m., in the fourth minute of injury time, coach Gareth Southgate stood on the sidelines and gave Ivan Toney, the 28-year-old striker from Brentford FC, a few words of encouragement before his appearance. Phil Foden left the field for him, creeping from the right sideline towards the substitutes’ bench.
“What a player!”
He was just behind Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka’s goal, carefully stepping over the cameras that were behind it, when Kyle Walker threw the ball into the middle, center-back Marc Guehi headed the ball one step further – and that’s exactly where Bellingham stood and performed his magic. That was at 19:54, in the fifth minute of stoppage time. It was the moment when a storm of jubilation swept the arena in Gelsenkirchen.
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If you look at the images of this scene again, you can also see Toney, the striker that Southgate had just brought on as a substitute. He was at the first post and kept Norbert Gyömber, the centre-back who had come on a minute before Toney, busy – creating the space that Bellingham needed. “That long throw-in is something we have been working on in training,” said England captain Harry Kane later.
But training is one thing, this scene in the fifth minute of injury time in a European Championship round of 16 match is another: “To score a goal like that in that moment to keep our dreams alive is one of the best. What a player!” said Kane.
Bellingham disparaging and theatrical
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of English people had already left the stadium, they were disappointed with their team’s performance, some were already giving interviews on the way to the tram stop, they were cursing, swearing and wishing for a fresh start without coach Gareth Southgate. They missed a piece of English football history.
The Slovaks had already taken the lead in the first half with a goal (25th minute) from Ivan Schranz, and after the break David Strelec almost increased the lead to 2-0 when Bellingham played a free kick to John Stones, who, however, did not react – and Strelec lifted the ball from the halfway line over goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, but the ball rolled just wide of the goal.
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Although England had around 78 percent possession at times, they seemed helpless for a long time. For the first time since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, an English national team did not shoot at goal in the first half. Many fans were already whistling at their team’s ball-passing at half-time. After the break, Foden scored what appeared to be an equalizer (50th minute), but was just offside, and later Declan Rice only hit the post from around 22 meters (81st minute).
Bellingham was unable to make an impact for a long time. He kept making derogatory gestures – even towards his teammates – and kept falling a little too theatrically when one of the Slovakians tackled him, and kept lying on the pitch a little too long. Coach Southgate said after the game that he had considered taking Bellingham and Kane out of the game.
Bellingham – who else?
At 8:01 p.m., the first minute of extra time, Kane suddenly found himself completely free in the six-yard box when Toney headed the ball into the middle. Kane scored from close range to make it 2-1 for England. The evening could not have been much more bitter for the Slovakians, who fought selflessly and were so close to writing their own piece of football history.
Pure joy: Jude Bellingham (right) and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford celebrate after the game.dpa
“This dream was shattered at the very last second. But we were very close against an opponent who is one of the favorites,” said Francesco Calzona, the coach of the Slovakians, who fought until the end of extra time and put the English under pressure late on.
When Bellingham turned to celebrate after his goal, he shouted: “Who else?” The Englishman has already decided both Clásicos in La Liga in Spain this season with his goals in the first and second minutes of injury time. “I know what I can do in moments like that,” he said.
Bellingham has now scored two goals at this European Championship and has been voted “Man of the Match” twice, but even that cannot disguise the fact that he has repeatedly disappeared in a total of six halves against Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia and Slovakia and, like Kane and others in this English team, does not appear to be 100 percent fit. So what is still possible for them?
In the quarter-finals, England will face Switzerland in Düsseldorf next Saturday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship and on MagentaTV). “We’re still in the game,” said Southgate. He sounded as if he himself couldn’t yet understand it.
