England 2 DR Congo 1
What a scare that was for one of the favourites. It took 75 minutes but England’s star man turned the game around to avoid a serious embarrassment for the 3 Lions, DR Congo stunned them early on as Chancel Mbemba tried crossing to Wissa with the ball falling to the back-post where Brian Cipenga stood up Djed Spence and fired a shot past Pickford at the near-post to give the African side the lead. England did respond well creating a number of chances for Bellingham and Rashford only for Lionel Mpasi to stop them each and every time in the Congo goal, DR Congo did look dangerous on the break at times with Yoane Wissa missing a guilt-edge chance towards the end of the half that was then followed by a massive penalty shout from England after Kane went over from Mpasi’s challenge. The referee turned away along with VAR as DR Congo went into the break with the lead, as the second half wore on Tuchel had to make changes and did bringing on Gordon and Saka for Madueke and Rashford in the 60th minute. A change that worked perfectly as just 15 minutes later England equalised as Gordon picked up the ball on the left and crossed to the back-post where who else but Harry Kane was waiting to head England back into the game, then 10 minutes later out of nowhere Gordon played the ball into Kane who touched the ball into space and fired an absolute missile past Mpasi to win the game for England. One hell of a scare for England who have a date at the Azteca with Mexico next, good luck.
England have to improve massively if they want to go any further. Obviously DR Congo are a decent side but if you have hopes of winning this tournament the performances have to improve or else you’re out in the next round, the early goal definitely stunned England but I actually thought they responded relatively well. If it wasn’t for Mpasi in the Congo goal England would have easily scored 2 or 3 in the first half on top of the penalty shout which easily could have been given, then on the other hand they could have been 2-0 down if Wissa takes that guilt-edge chance so it depends what way you want to look at it. In terms of performances I think there were a few that really let England down today, Rashford was pretty abhorrent on that left-wing and I also thought Djed Spence was poor at right-back. Anthony Gordon was superb off the bench assisting both goals then you have Harry Kane who just put the team on his back and dragged them over the line with two brilliant goals, overall it definitely wasn’t the greatest England performance but it’s all about getting over the line at the World Cup.
What could have been for DR Congo. They almost played the perfect game scoring early and defending for their lives before Kane just took complete control of the game, the early goal was absolute brilliance from Cipenga who played well all game but you can’t help but just keep thinking about Wissa chance at the end of the first half. If that chance goes in I don’t see England coming back in the second half to go through, defensively they were absolutely brilliant for most of the game in particular Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Axel Tuanzebe and Chancel Mbemba. They swatted away everything thrown at them from England along with Mpasi having the game of his life in goal, if you were to be critical of any of the DR Congo players it would probably be in the attack where they just needed a bit more composure on the break and they could have nabbed that second goal. Overall it’s been a successful World Cup for the DR Congo but that Wissa chance will stick in the back of the mind, what could have been?
Harry Kane continues on the hunt for the Ballon d’Or. Before the start of the World Cup I had Harry Kane as the Ballon d’Or favourite after scoring over 60 goals for Bayern Munich last year and whilst Mbappe and Olise have made up some ground I still think he’s the favourite for me, that second goal today was just sheer brilliance and a goal I don’t think any other player in world football can score. There’s been doubts in the past about Kane’s effectiveness for England come the knockouts of these tournaments in the past but it looks like he’s taking responsibility in this World Cup to try and drag England back to the promise land of the past, can Kane win the Ballon d’Or this year? If England continue to go far in this tournament I think he will.
Who will England be taking on next? Up next for the 3 Lions is the small task of Mexico at the Azteca in the Round of 16, a tie that has banana skin written all over it for England if you can even call it that, Mexico have looked imperious so far at the Azetca knocking Ecuador out with ease last night and you can just imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like before that match. If England want any chance of going through they’ll need a much improved performance as Mexico will take some beating at their home stadium, it should be an absolute cracker and one worth staying up for as it takes place at 1AM on Monday morning.