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Sterling and Saka lead charge as England throw off old anxieties | Jonathan Wilson

08-Jul-2021 07:00:02 | Guardian

The hour of steadily mounting pressure on the Denmark goal was the like of which England have not produced in 25 years

Gareth Southgate values control almost above anything else. For England, this has been a tournament about control. He has talked about aping Portugal at Euro 2016 and France at the World Cup, of learning how to manage games. But there are two ways of controlling games. There is controlling games by attacking, as England did with remarkable intensity and consistency between the start of the second half and the end of the first half of extra time, and there is controlling the game as England did in the second half of extra time, keeping the ball away from Denmark with such efficiency that they managed only one touch in the England box in that period. Control, it turns out, doesn’t have to be boring.

Southgate had opted for a back four from the start, which meant, rather than match up shape-for-shape against Denmark’s wing-backs, he had Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka looking to attack the spaces behind them. After all the accusations of over-conservatism, in his biggest game for three years, Southgate opted for the more aggressive option. He could have started with the side he had used against Germany, when Kieran Trippier and Luke Shaw won the battle of the wing-backs and effectively nullified Robin Gosens and Joshua Kimmich.