FIFA World Cup 2018: England vs Colombia

The 2018 World Cup is yet to fail in giving us drama and last night was no different. After 120 minutes possibly now the most famous England penalty shoot-out saw the Three Lions triumph over Colombia in what was another greatly tense World Cup knockout game.

Looking at England’s tournament so far, Colombia have most probably offered them the hardest challenge as the match against Belgium was pretty much battle of the B teams.

However, like in their previous outings, England performed in a professional manner which helped them control the majority of the game how they would’ve liked. They did, however, possibly offer Colombia too much respect which showed late in regular time and in the first half of extra time. Here’s how:

Team News

As expected, England reverted back to their A team for this game, however, the one change that was somewhat surprising was starting Dele Alli after his thigh strain. For the most part though, this decision worked in Gareth Southgate’s favour.

For Colombia, the big talking point was the absence of James Rodriguez through injury. Without their star man, they changed their system to a 4-3-1-2 for the game instead of the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 that served them and Rodriguez well in the group. In this system the creative burden fell very much on Juan Fernando Quintero in the number 10 position but England combatted this very well.