Southgate describes shoot-out win as ‘special moment’

Joe Williams

Gareth Southgate described England’s 4-3 penalty shoot-out victory over Colombia in the last-16 of the World Cup as a “special moment”.

The Three Lions went ahead in the second-half when Harry Kane scored a penalty before Yerry Mina equalised for Colombia in the dying moments of the match to make it 1-1 and take the game to extra-time.

Penalties would eventually decide the match when extra-time couldn’t separate the teams and after a Jordan Pickford save, Eric Dier stepped up to score the winning kick.

“Fantastic,” Southgate said to ITV. “I think we deserved it as well. We played so well in the 90 minutes, We showed resilience to come back from huge disappointment and kept calm. It’s huge credit to all our players and staff.

“Shootouts are tough. We had talked long and hard about owning the process of a shootout. They kept calm. The players have taken it all on board, it’s a special moment for us.

“We looked at technique, how we needed to be as a team, the goalkeeper’s role. A special moment but now I’m thinking about Sweden.

“This was special but I want us to go on. Sweden is another team we have a poor record against. We have underestimated them for years.

“We didn’t rise to it which was brilliant, in general. A couple of times we lost our cool. It was an away game, to deal with it all was exceptional.

“They have created their own story and made history. I don’t want to go home yet.”