British misery after John Stones's blunder in the Netherlands | Soccer

It was a despicable way for England to lose and a reminder, perhaps, that no matter how large the improvements under Gareth Southgate, it's still easy to slip into bad old habits – in this case, a brave attempt to be recognized as the Slapstick XI international football once the game was spent in the extra time.

If it sounds a bit harsh, how to badyze a traumatic half-hour while two of the goals scored by the Netherlands came from the kind of defensive screamers that show that the Southgate team is still coping with the Modern era of spilling the balloon their own area of ​​repair?

It may sound good when it comes off. Not that much, though, when Ross Barkley has his face in the grbad, not wanting to look in the air and watch the damage after his mistake for the Netherlands' third goal. Or when Jordan Pickford shouts about John Stones, another who walks around with a zombie look, for the pretty awful mistake that started the capitulation.

For Stones, it was a personal event that matched a season on the sidelines of Manchester City's success. Records will show that it was Kyle Walker's own goal that put the Netherlands in the forefront. In reality, it's Stones who put his team in danger: he loses control of the ball with Memphis Depay nearby, loses possession of the ball and watch the rest unfold without being able to do anything.

It was hard to know what was the most calamitous goal and, unfortunately for Stones, he played a role in both goals. After all, it was the stones that played the pbad that put Barkley under pressure and saw him, as the last man, lose the ball again to Depay. Quincy Promes, one of the Dutch replacements, was waiting for Depay's setback to take the score to 3-1. For England, it was another defeat in the semifinal and another wasting history of a first-half lead made against Croatia at the World Cup last summer.

At least this time, the consequences are not so serious and the late collapse of England has occurred in the League of Nations – a competition that not everyone takes seriously. Still, a final is a final and Southgate and his players were still disappointed, especially when they took over advantage by taking advantage through Marcus Rashford's penalty kick in the first half-time and, at 1-1, the celebrations were in the 84th minute. when they thought substitute Jesse Lingard had scored a potential winner. It was a brilliant goal: a late Raheem Sterling, a superb Barkley deep pbad, followed by a precise finish. Instead, VAR officials had noted that Lingard was slightly offside. The goal has been ruled out and England has deteriorated from this point.

At those times, Southgate must have been surprised to see its mix of naivety and carelessness. Too often, Stones has been guilty of the kind of lack of concentration that has seen him lose the ball to Depay and give the former Manchester United player a shot at Jordan Pickford's goal. It was a one-handed save from the England goalkeeper, but the ball was loose. Pickford could not get up fast enough, and even with Walker's famous pace, Promes slipped in first. Even in this case, the ball would have escaped the goal until it pbaded by the unfortunate Walker, leaving Pickford furiously opposed to Stones.

When Promes gave the Netherlands a cushion of two goals, with 114 minutes on the clock, the English fans began to go in droves, knowing that their team would not go to Porto for Sunday's final. against Portugal but would return to Guimarães for the third. Fourth dam against Switzerland.

England had three quarters of the stadium and enough support to make it look like a home match. There were only two corners of Vitória's soil populated by garish shirts of Oranje, which was probably an indication of how the Dutch stay a little away from this competition. Otherwise, it was an English invasion, and who could blame the Dutch fans for their "oled"Late on?" As usual, the souteneurs of England felt it was necessary to whistle, boo and shout the Dutch national anthem.

In the end, it was also a triumphant night for Matthijs de Ligt, knowing that it was his mistake to let the ball slip under his foot that made him panic for him to charge the penalty to Rashford.

De Ligt's status as one of Europe's most outstanding young players will likely mean he will join Barcelona later this summer. On this occasion, he was very faulty for the goal of England and also had to support Jadon Sancho's nutmeg before launching into a corner to launch the Dutch riposte.

Rashford was injured in the first period, which means that Southgate hired Harry Kane sooner than he would have ideally wished at an evening when the England manager n & # 's He had started with none of his finalists in the Liverpool and Tottenham Champions League.

This selection meant that Sterling became captain – for the first period anyway – on the night of his 50th selection. Fabian Delph, who has not played in the Premier League for Manchester City since Boxing Day, was joined by Declan Rice and Barkley in the middle of the field, while Sterling and Sancho held wide positions.

Both Walker and Ben Chilwell had the necessary license to move from the back to the defender position and, in those moments, Rice tended to sandwich between Stones and Harry Maguire, the two half-breeds. centers.

We can not criticize Southgate too much for having trusted his players to play defense, but a team can sometimes be too elaborate. At one point Walker lost possession of his vehicle and was grateful to Pickford for not letting go. Frenkie de Jong was superb and England, again, had not succeeded.