After suffering a 1-2 defeat against defending champion France in the World Cup quarterfinals, former England captain Alan Shearer has stated that the defeat was neither a tactical nor an institutional failure.
Alan Shearer, the former captain of England and the Premier League’s highest scorer, spoke one day after England suffered their seventh quarterfinal defeat, a 1-2 loss to defending champion France.
Shearer referred to England’s missed opportunity to make history and said that the loss on Friday night was not a tactical failure.
“You can analyze this as much as you want (and, man, I’m sure we will), but matches sometimes depend on moments, and they swing for you sometimes and don’t.” This young, progressive England team and their progressive manager are headed home after Harry Kane missed a penalty. It wasn’t a failure of the system, substitutes, tactics, talent, or practice that was the problem. Shearer wrote in his column for The Athletic that “sometimes s*** happens and then sleep deserts you.“
Prior to the match, England coach Gareth Southgate also discussed the team’s preparation for the match against France.
Southgate was of the opinion that the England team was disciplined for the majority of the quarterfinal and gave a good fight, even though Harry Kane missed a penalty in the 84th minute of the match.
“The game was exactly what we had planned. We were aware that we would probably have more of the ball. We knew France, a lot of times they will pause and they need to hit you on counter-assault, so positionally you must be so focused. We were throughout most of the game. We weren’t always completely right. However, we achieved the ideal balance for the majority of the game. In a conversation on the official England television show Lions Den, Southgate said, “A 30-second period can turn your life upside down.”
After Aurellen Tchouameni opened the scoring for the defending champions in the 17th minute, England fell behind 1-0.
The last part saw England overwhelming the procedures and Harry Kane scored the adjuster for the group after Bukayo Saka was fouled by Tchoumeni in the 54th moment of the match. Before England captain Harry Kane missed a penalty kick in the 84th minute, Oliver Giroud scored France’s second goal in the 78th minute to give the defending champions the lead.
England lost for the seventh time in the World Cup quarterfinals, falling 2-1 to France. Southgate discussed the team’s character throughout the France match.
First of all, I believe they demonstrated their character when we went behind yesterday. You are playing a game. The opposition is dangerous on the counter with a goal behind them. We might have been overwhelmed in a game like that a few years ago, I think.
However, we rode that period and particularly dominated the second half. So that comes from the soul that is there. And in a time like this one, when some people will be particularly affected by their sense of responsibility. That shouldn’t be how they feel. As a team, we have endured far too much,” Southgate continued.
The former England player became the team’s head coach in 2016 and led the team to the World Cup semi-final in 2018, with the exception of the Euro Championship final against Italy the previous year. The team lost to Italy in the Euro final on penalties.
Southgate is of the opinion that the current team is playing more freely, and the coach’s contract runs until the end of 2024.
“The knockout games have become something where we have more expectations, and we’ve become freer in them because of our experiences in the last few years. When I think back to Colombia’s round of 16 matches at the 2018 World Cup, which took place four years ago, the team and each of us were under a lot of stress trying to get past the line, which affected our performance. Southgate stated, “I think that’s what that experience brings, as we saw in the two knockout games this time.”