England finally broke their penalty curse by defeating Colombia 4-3 on penalties. Eric Dier was the hero of the moment after Jordan Pickford saved Carlos Bacca’s penalty and left Dier with the opportunity to send England through – he did it with the utmost cool. England will now face Sweden in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Colombia will be ruing their loss and the absence of James Rodriguez left a gaping hole in the team.
The first half was a cagey affair with both teams not wanting to give anything away. Harry Kane had the best chance but could not convert the opportunity. Colombia can count themselves lucky as Wilmar Barrios appeared to head-butt Jordan Henderson in the box but the referee saw it fit to brandish a yellow.
Harry Kane brought the game to life in the 57th minute by coolly converting a spot-kick after he was brought down in the box by Carlos Sanchez. The goal was Harry Kane’s sixth the World Cup so far. Colombia looked like they came to fight and not play and struggled to create real openings until the 93rd minute when that man again Yerry Mina rose the highest to level the game and restore parity sending the game to extra-time. Mina has now scored three goals in his last three games as a defender in the World Cup. Both sides could not get the deciding goal at extra-time and the game went to penalties after 120 minutes.
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