The Three Lions produced a world beating display as they put four goals past Ukraine at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in the Euro 2020 quarter final. Josh Zealand recaps England’s sensational night in the Italian capital and looks ahead to their semi-final tie against Denmark.
Manager Gareth Southgate and his team have reached a European Championship semi-final for the first time in 25 years. They will face Denmark on Wednesday evening in front of a home crowd at Wembley.
England 4-0 Ukraine
Kane (4′, 50′), Maguire (46′), Henderson (63′)
Is it coming home? England vs Ukraine match report
England followed up their historic win against Germany with a high-quality display against Ukraine which was full of talent. Harry Kane, who notched his first goal of the tournament against the Germans, was seemingly back to his brilliant best as he poked home the opening goal inside just 4 minutes. Raheem Sterling’s clever through ball found Kane in behind the defence, leaving him with a simple finish and England an early lead.
Ukraine barely threatened England, who were looking to extend their lead after going into half-time 1-0 up. England found themselves well on their way to another major tournament semi final when Sheffield’s own Harry Maguire gave them a two-goal advantage. The former Sheffield United star headed home from a brilliantly swung in Luke Shaw free-kick just moments into the second half.
Shaw became creator once again, another cross this time allowing England Captain Harry Kane to effortless head past the Ukraine keeper. 3-0 England and surely game over. To be fair to Ukraine, they never gave in and even when Jordan Henderson grabbed England’s fourth goal of the night, they were still trying to play through England’s defence. It was Henderson’s first international goal in 62 appearances, timing his run to perfection to head in from a Mason Mount corner.
England kept their fifth successive clean sheet at the tournament, still having not conceded a single goal at Euro 2020.
England vs Denmark
Wednesday July 7th, 8pm, Wembley stadium, london
England will face an inspired Denmark side who will be looking to go all the way to the final in support of their team-mate Christian Eriksen who collapsed in their opening game of the tournament. Denmark beat Czech Republic 2-1 in their quarter final match in Baku, Azerbaijan. England beat the Czechs in the group stage by only 1-0, so this is sure to be a tense and nail-biting affair. But we did say that about the Ukraine match…
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