The “bastards” of England’s European Championship defeat get a second chance and redeem themselves in the Cup

last year , England She reached her first Euro final in history, but it was Defeated on penalties by Italy in the final🇧🇷 Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bucayo Saka missed their kicks. However, two of the three redeemed themselves in the England team’s first match of this edition world CupAnd they left their mark in the defeat of the English team against Iran, with a score of 6-2.

Saka, who missed the decisive penalty kick, started as a starter against the Iranians and scored two goals. To date he is the top scorer of the World Cup along with Ener Valencia (Ecuador), Mehdi Tarimi (Iran) and Olivier Giroud (France). Rashford started the game among the reserves, but came on in the 26th minute of the second half and scored on his first attempt on the pitch. Only Sancho remained, who was not able to turn around, since he was not even called up to the World Cup.

On the occasion of the European Championships, coach Gareth Southgate, who is still in charge of the English team, blamed. It was he who decided to put Rashford and Sancho at the end of extra time only to take part in penalty kicks and also decided that Saka would beat the last kick, because he was doing well in training. What the English coach did not think about was the age of the boys. At the time, Saka was 19 years old, Sancho 21 and Rashford 23.

To make matters worse, the three boys were subjected to racist attacks, especially through social networks, after the missed punishment episode. Rashford was the main target, as he already had a history of being active in the search for social balance, particularly in the fight against hunger. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Manchester United athlete spearheaded the ‘Players Together’ campaign, which raised £4 million (about R$26 million at the time) for the UK’s National Health Service. That same year, Marcus was responsible for distributing 3 million meals during the Covid-19 outbreak, in partnership with the charity Fareshare. This action made the British Prime Minister at the time, Boris Johnson, establish a food fund for children in need.

You don’t have a chance

The relationship between England, Southgate and penalty kicks is terrible, especially if the stage is London’s legendary Wembley Stadium. In addition to the defeat in last year’s Euro final, which was played on the London stage, Gareth was the great “villain” of England in the elimination of the Three Lions in the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championship. Converted, so the 25-year-old defender, who was playing for Aston Villa , he went to the substitute kick and stopped at goalkeeper Koepke. In the sequence, Müller converted the kick and put the Germans, who would be champions, into the final.

Gareth Southgate also featured in another European Cup, in 2000, as well as the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, but he fell short of the success of Rashford and Saka starting the ‘key exchange’ process. The chance for salvation lies in winning the main competition among the world’s national teams this year, and silencing critics about his work in front of the England national team.

If England are world champions this year, it will, as well as being an impressive victory after 56 years, mark the English’s first victory away from the country. This is because even in the European Championships in 1996 and 2020, the decision will be the same as the Wembley decision that the English team conquered the world in 1966.

🇧🇷The best content in your email for free. Choose your favorite Terra newsletter. click here!