England keep their heads to sink the Swedes and move into the final four

The 'Three Lions' went into the game riding a wave of enthusiastic support from back home following their penalty shootout win over Colombia in the last 16, though their recent record against the Swedes served as a warning that the game would not be a walk in the park.

In accordance with the pre-match predictions England dominated the ball early on with Sweden content to cede possession to their opponents.

Harry Kane has the game's first real effort as he fizzed a low strike narrowly wide from 20 yards with 19 minutes gone, before England's blushes were saved by the offside flag just seven minutes later as the tightest of offside decisions denied Marcus Berg the chance of streaking away clear.

As the half-hour mark arrived, so did the opener, with Harry Maguire powering home a header from Ashley Young's left-wing corner from 12 yards to score his first goal for his country after being inexplicably left unmarked.

That goal forced the Swedes to abandon their safety-first approach and it was England who ended the half the stronger, with Raheem Sterling wasting a glorious chance after being put in one-on-one with robin Olsen by a wonderful first-time pass from Jordan Henderson.

Nevertheless, England lead at the break, knowing full well that they have only ever lost one World Cup game after taking an advantage in at the interval.

 

7 July 2018

Sweden had to find something in the second half to get back into the game and they almost did so just minutes after the restart as Jordan Pickford had to produce a fine left-handed save to keep out Marcus Berg's powerful header from a Ludwig Augustinsson cross.

That was followed by a period of England pressure, which culminated with the second goal of the game with 59 minutes gone.

Kieran Trippier fed Jesse Lingard on the edge of the box and he clipped a wonderful ball to the far post for Dele Alli to ghost in and head beyond Olsen to double the lead.

England knew they were in the driving seat at that point, but Pickford would still be forced into another couple of sharp saves to secure his clean sheet.

First, the Everton man had to dive low away to his right to deny Viktor Claesson's placed effort after he gathered Marcus Berg's lovely flick into his path on the penalty spot, before he showed all his agility to get the deftest of touches on Berg's effort on the turn after he gathered substitute John Guidetti's cross from the left.

Those two chances aside it was a relatively stress-free last 15 minutes for the 'Three Lions', who will face either Croatia or Russia in the semi-finals at the Luzhniki on Wednesday.

This marks only the third time England have reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in their history, haiving previously done so in 1996 and 1990.

 

7 July 2018