England captain Jos Buttler completes the demolition of India in the semi-finals
The T20 World Cup – that is, the global tournament for the short and sweet 20-overs-per-side format of the game – started in Australia on 16th October. The first week saw Ireland, Namibia, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, the West Indies and Zimbabwe compete in two groups of four for four places in the next round. There were shocks – Nambia beat Sri Lanka (2014 winners) in the very first game and Scotland beat the West Indies. The West Indies were actually eliminated in this first round – the 2012 and 2016 champions were out before the tournament had really got going.
Ireland, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe progressed to the Super 12 stage, where they were joined by Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa in two more groups of six. The top two in each group would go through to the semi-finals. Australia, the hosts and last year’s winners, were thrashed by New Zealand in their first game. Pakistan lost a thriller to arch-rivals India, then were beaten by Zimbabwe to leave them on the brink of going out.
Australia won the World Cup last year but failed to get out of the group stage here
The weather was a problem early on. The tournament was being played very early in the Australian spring, so rain caused issues in several games – Afghanistan’s two chances to play at the enormous, world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground were both washed out. South Africa would have beaten Zimbabwe had the rain not come down, a dropped point that would prove very costly indeed. The tasty clash between Australia and England did not see a ball bowled. England were stuttering in a run chase against Ireland before the weather forced an early ending, with the Irish earning a famous win on the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern method.
New Zealand were the early form horses, but England beat them and then completed a nervy win over Sri Lanka to knock Australia out of their own competition and progress to the semi-finals. On the final day of the Super 12s, South Africa suffered a shock defeat to the Netherlands to open the door for the winner of the Bangladesh v Pakistan match to go through at their expense. That beneficiary was Pakistan, into the semi-finals when days before it looked like they were heading home.
Pakistan are in the T20 World Cup final for the third time – they won it in 2009
In the first semi-final, Pakistan fielded superbly and their captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan enjoyed their best opening partnership of the tournament to see off New Zealand. On Thursday, a feverish India-supporting crowd in Adelaide watched on in shock as England chased down 169 without losing a wicket and with four overs to spare. Jos Buttler’s team hit top gear at just the right time, thrashing the much-fancied Indians. It means the tournament is denied the glamorous, money-spinning grudge match of a final that India vs Pakistan would have been, but England and Pakistan deserve to be there. The two sides played out a thrilling seven-match T20 series a few weeks before the World Cup, with England winning 4-3, so hopes are high for an entertaining final and a worthy winner.
Up to now, the entire tournament has been hidden behind the paywall of Sky Sports, but they have graciously done a deal with Channel 4 so that the final will be live for all to see on free-to-air television. If you’re not a cricket fan, I urge you to tune in – T20 is fast, exciting and England might just win a World Cup. And that’s not something that’s going to happen in Qatar.
T20 World Cup 2022 – Final England v Pakistan Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia Sunday 13th November 2022, 8am GMT Channel 4
England are the champions of Europe. I, and no one else who holds their national pride through the prism of sport, will ever tire of saying that.
The power of sport is incredible. It brings people together, it divides them, it captures the nation’s attention and it even brings about huge changes in society. I am so grateful to have sport in my life and I don’t know what I would do without it. On Sunday afternoon, I rushed home from work to watch the final on TV. A peak audience of 17.4 million tuned into the BBC, making it the most watched women’s football match ever on UK television.
The match itself was an emotional wrangle. It was tense throughout, the two finalists were well matched and clearly the two best teams in the tournament. Ella Toone’s sublime finish gave England the lead in the second half, only for Germany to level through Lina Magull. Tabea Wassmuth dragged England captain Leah Williamson out of position, allowing Magull the space to finish.
At that point, I felt like the Germans just hadn’t read the script. Like the Italian men last year. This wasn’t their story. The Wembley crowd – 87,192, a record for a Euros match for men or women – were desperate for England to go all the way and put the crowning glory on a fantastic tournament. On the radio on the way home from work, I heard a German journalist say “Germany wants to win it. England needs to win it.” He was right. England had done so well, but they really needed to make that final step.
Extra time came and the dreaded penalty shootout was looming. Everyone knows we don’t beat the Germans at penalties. Thank heavens, then, for Chloe Kelly poking the ball over the line from a (North Walsham born) Lauren Hemp corner and putting England back in front with ten minutes to go. The celebrations were wild. For once, England weren’t following the script.
The way England saw out the game was masterful. Keeping it in the corner, drawing cheap fouls from the increasingly frustrated Germans, not giving them a sniff of coming back. Then, the referee (who had a really poor game, by the way) put the whistle to her lips. She waited a couple of seconds and then blew. No one knew what to do with themselves. England had won Euro 2022, the country’s first major tournament victory in football since 1966.
Here, we were embracing each other in pure delight. It feels so good because it happens so rarely. Germany, for instance, were aiming to win the Women’s Euros for the ninth time. It wouldn’t have felt so joyous and momentous for them. England, with the years of dreaming, the heartbreak, the near-misses… it all felt like it was leading up to that moment.
I have spent a lot of time and energy arguing with men – and it is always men – on Twitter about women’s sport. Tired clichés about how ‘no one cares’, ‘the standard is shocking’, ‘they should be in the kitchen’. Well, last night they were categorically rendered incorrect and irrelevant. I just love sport and I don’t care if the people playing it are male or female. The quarter-final against Spain and the final against Germany comfortably matched the quality of any men’s football match I can think of, and I am so proud that this incredibly likeable squad will have inspired women and girls across the country to start playing and to dream big.
It’s been an amazing few years for women’s sport in the UK. England won the cricket World Cup in 2017, Emma Raducanu won the US Open last year at the age of just 18, and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games are the first to award more gold medals to women than men. It’s wonderful to see.
So, if you’re one of those blokes who avoided the game yesterday because you feel threatened and intimidated by seeing a woman play sport, I have a question for you:
No one is going to be the slightest bit interested in reading about the Euro 2020 final, so I’m not going to write about it. Here’s the BBC match report if you insist.
Italy, it’s been great having you back on the major tournament stage. You were missed when you didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup. There’s something about that rock solid defence, attacking flair and blue shirts that appeals to the casual football fan.
But you can’t read a script can you? This wasn’t meant to be your time. You’ve had your time, over and over, in the past. This was meant to be England’s day. England had a story to complete. It’s not your fault that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bakayo Saka took three absolutely horrendous penalties, granted. But come on.
Euro 2020 has been a great tournament – but it had the wrong ending.
I’ve enjoyed Euro 2020. Major tournaments can often feel like they drag on but this one has been a good one. I’m sorry it’s nearly over.
All that’s left is the final.
Denmark continue to ride their wave of emotion
Denmark’s players celebrate overcoming the Czech Republic in the quarter finals
My last round up ended with two of the semi-finalists sorted – Spain and Italy – with two more quarter finals still to be played. The first of those was between the Czech Republic and Denmark, way out in the Azerbaijan capital Baku. The Danes took the lead after just five minutes through Thomas Delaney. The Borussia Dortmund midfielder was left unmarked at a corner and his powerful header down into the ground bounced out of the reach of the Czech goalkeeper and into the net.
With half time approaching a fantastic cross by Joakim Maehle found Kasper Dolberg on the volley, who volleyed in to double the Danish lead. Dolberg has impressed in this tournament, with that goal adding to the two he scored in the last round against Wales. The 23-year-old might find himself with a big money move in the near future (with no disrespect to his current club, Nice).
Another players who has had a good Euros is Patrik Schick. The Bayer Leverkusen striker got on the end of West Ham defender Vladimír Coufal’s ball into the box and managed to divert it beyond Kasper Schmeichel not long after half time to keep the Czechs in the game. It was his fifth goal of the tournament, making him its joint top scorer alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
Denmark managed to hold on, though, and on a hot night in Baku celebrated reaching the semi-finals. A tournament that started with one of their players very nearly dying on the pitch and with back-to-back defeats to Finland and Belgium has gone on to see them reach the last four – and who knows? They could even surprise everyone and end up European champions, just as they did back in 1992 when they hadn’t even qualified.
England ease past Ukraine
England’s campaign had been flying slightly under the radar before they beat Germany at Wembley. A decent performance in the opening game against Croatia but only a 1-0 win, a disappointing goalless draw with Scotland and another 1-0 against a Czech Republic side who were quite happy not to top the group. They had got through the group stage pretty much untroubled, however, and they hadn’t conceded a goal. Another clean sheet and a couple of goals in the ninety minutes against the Germans whipped the country into a fervour and had ‘it’s coming home’ on everyone’s lips.
Harry Maguire celebrates scoring one of England’s four goals against Ukraine
A couple of hours after Denmark had sealed a place in the semi-finals, England and Ukraine kicked off in Rome. The victory over Germany was very much a ‘prove everyone wrong’ moment, but here England found themselves in the unusual position of big favourites for a quarter-final. Harry Kane settled the nerves just four minutes in by finishing from just outside the six yard box after an excellent pass by Raheem Sterling. England were well on top and when Harry Maguire headed in a second goal from a Luke Shaw free kick early in the second half Ukraine had no answer. Two more headers – one from Kane and a first international goal for Jordan Henderson – finished off a professional performance. England were in the semi-finals of the Euros for the first time since 1996, where they would play Denmark at Wembley.
Captivating semi-final sees Italy progress
With the pandemic making international travel difficult there were fears that the Wembley crowd for the first semi-final between Italy and Spain would fall some way short of the around 60,000 permitted. Those fears proved unfounded as a raucous atmosphere befitting of the occasion provided the soundtrack to a fascinating game of high quality football.
Italy were the favourites, going into the match with a 100% record in the tournament, while Spain had seemingly stumbled their way through to this stage, needing extra time to get past both Croatia and Switzerland. The Spanish were not to be underestimated and started well, RB Leipzig midfielder Dani Olmo causing problems for the Italians. Gianluigi Donnarumma is already, at 22, one of the best goalkeepers in the world but there was a hint that the pressure was getting to him as he made some uncharacteristic mistakes in the first half. Spain couldn’t capitalise, though, with Mikel Oyarzabal missing two glorious chances to score. Seriously, the 24-year-old will be having nightmares about them.
On the hour mark an Italy counter attack saw the ball at the feet of Federico Chiesa, who picked it up on the edge of the box after Aymeric Laporte had tried to scramble it away for Spain. Chiesa brought it into the area and curled a fantastic shot into the far corner. Italy had broken the deadlock.
Spain brought the much-maligned striker Alvaro Morata on a as a substitute and with ten minutes remaining he played a brilliant one-two with Olmo to get behind the Italian defence and slot in an equaliser. The game needed extra time and Spain had the better of it. Italy looked tired but, once again, Spain couldn’t make the most of it and a penalty shootout was in order.
Italy’s first penalty, taken by Manuel Locatelli, was saved. Olmo blasted Spain’s first over the bar. Both sides were successful with their next few before the unfortunate Morata had his saved by Donnarumma. The Chelsea midfielder Jorginho stepped up and was the calmest man in the stadium as he nonchalantly passed the ball into the corner to put Italy into the final. It was almost Panenka levels of cool.
Jorginho rolls in an incredibly cool penalty to send Italy into the final
England finally make a final
Wednesday 7th July 2021 was the date of England’s semi-final against Denmark – 9,142 days since their last appearance in the last four of a European Championship. By this point football fever had well and truly gripped the nation, and with hours to go before kick off the crowds outside Wembley were building.
England started the game well without ever really threatening to score. With half an hour played, Denmark won a free kick about thirty yards from Jordan Pickford’s net and Mikkel Damsgaard fired in a brilliant shot – the first goal England had conceded in the tournament. That wasn’t in the script. It could be claimed that Pickford should have done better as the shot wasn’t right in the corner but it was travelling at such pace I think you can give the Everton keeper the benefit of the doubt.
It didn’t take England long to respond. Bakayo Saka played the ball to Harry Kane on the right hand side of the area and he squared it in the direction of the onrushing Raheem Sterling. Sterling had already scored three goals in Euro 2020, and it looked for all the world that he was about to make it four. Kasper Schmeichel, however, had other ideas and produced a brilliant stop reminiscent of his father Peter.
Shortly afterwards, Kane played a delightful pass that made its way through the Denmark defence, where Saka was able to put it back across the box where Sterling was arriving once more. There’s no doubt that the Manchester City midfielder would have scored this time, had the Danish captain Simon Kjaer not turned the ball into his own net. There was nothing he could do really – he had to try to get in Sterling’s way and hope that ball evaded the goal. England were level, and from then on became the dominant side.
England beat Denmark in extra time to reach their first major tournament final since 1966
Every time England got a free kick in a crossing position they looked for the sizeable forehead of Harry Maguire, who very nearly scored but for a fantastic save from Schmeichel, who looked determined to spoil England’s evening after his quip in the pre-match press conference. Late on, England had a strong shout for a penalty turned down after a clumsy challenge on Kane – inexplicably, the referee decided that the incident warranted a free kick for Denmark. And that was that. Despite the introduction of Jack Grealish, who the Danes appeared to be terrified of, the game went into extra time.
Rarely have I ever seen a period of extra time dominated more by one side. In the first fifteen minutes, Denmark could hardly get out of their own half. England were piling the pressure onto tired Danish legs. There was a shot from Kane, Grealish stung Schmeichel’s fingers, and then Sterling weaved his way into the box near the byline, where he was tripped and a penalty was given. I’ve seen a lot of whining in the days since that this was a soft penalty – not for me. It looked like a penalty in real time and still looks like one in slow motion. Kane stepped up, had his penalty saved by Schmeichel (of course he did), but was first to the rebound and stuck it away to put England in front.
In the second period of extra time England were more defensive – Gareth Southgate withdrew Grealish and replaced him with Kieran Trippier, at first glance an odd decision but one designed to protect the lead. To be honest, Denmark never really looked like scoring an equaliser and after what felt like an age the referee blew the final whistle. England were into the Euro 2020 final.
Denmark had given everything. They had done themsevles, their nation and their teammate Christian Eriksen proud. But as an Englishman, the scenes of celebration at the end with 60,000 fans singing Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline were great to see. 55 years (!) after their last, England would play in a major tournament final.
So, is it coming home? Or going to Rome?
Italy won their only European Championship to date in 1968 – this is England’s first time in the final
Whatever happens on Sunday, the whole nation should see Euro 2020 as a success. England have so often been the butt of cheap jokes about how rubbish they are at football, about what an inflated opinion we have of our players – now they have a squad of players to be very proud of. In the early 2000s, when England undoubtedly had some fantastic players, it felt like they were incapable of putting club rivalries aside. The class of 2021 all seem to get on extremely well and want each other to succeed.
Beating Italy is an almighty tough ask. They have gone 33 matches unbeaten. They have, in Donnarumma, a giant in goal. The warhorses, Chiellini and Bonucci, in the centre of defence. The brilliant Jorginho and Chiesa in the midfield. England have their work cut out. There would be no shame in defeat, but the feeling that the story would be left incomplete would be hard to ignore. Football doesn’t really need a popularity boost in this country, but I’ve heard people who have shown no interest in the sport before talk about how they’ve been ‘really getting into’ England’s run at Euro 2020. We’ve all, collectively, had something to celebrate after an awful eighteen months – is it too much to ask to go that one last step?
It was in early January 2003, just before school started again after Christmas, that I first got into cricket.
I was 10 years old and would get up in the morning to find my dad in the living room watching the Ashes Test from Sydney on TV. On the screen, I could see Michael Vaughan batting for England and can remember thinking ‘this is great’.
Vaughan’s strokeplay, especially his cover drive, were just so pleasing on the eye. I knew next to nothing about the sport at the time. I didn’t know England were 4-0 down in the five match series. I didn’t know the Australian team was one of the best there had ever been. But I was fascinated by this Englishman artfully approaching these little red missiles being fired at him and making several Australians chase after them. I didn’t want to stop watching.
Watching Michael Vaughan bat got me into cricket
I would say I love football and cricket equally. Thankfully, with the end of the football season signalling the start of the cricket season in this country I rarely have to choose between the two. If I had to pick just one, however, it would be cricket.
So much can happen at any moment in a cricket match. Every ball is an event. There are so many ways for the batsman to score runs and so many ways for the bowler to get him out. Football tends to be mostly tedious until the last ten minutes of a game. And cricket is so aesthetically pleasing – it certainly takes the crown of ‘the beautiful game’ for me. Sorry, Pele.
I also love how cricket is so incredibly difficult to be good at. You’ve got three disciplines to tackle and it’s hard to be proficient at any of them. The chances of being good at all three are next to zero. International cricketers seem almost superhuman compared to mere mortals like me. Just look (below) at this catch England’s Ben Stokes took in an Ashes Test in 2015.
Cricket was the new cool in 2005 when England won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years, beating an immensely strong Australia 2-1 in what is unlikely ever to usurped as the best Test series of all time. The game was on the front and back pages of the newspapers and 7.4 million people tuned in to watch the end of the final Test live on Channel 4.
Since then, the England cricket team has only been visible on live television to Sky Sports subscribers. Prohibitively expensive to many and not likely to be stumbled upon by the casual viewer, cricket dropped out of the national consciousness and the numbers of people playing and watching sank. The conclusion of the final Ashes Test in 2009, only on Sky Sports, was watched by less than two million.
These are the reasons why this year’s World Cup has been so important for cricket in the UK. The world’s best players have been competing on our doorsteps for nearly seven weeks. Fan parks have opened the tournament up to thousands of newcomers. And to top it all, England came into it as favourites and have reached the final.
England thrashed Australia in the semi-finals to reach the Cricket World Cup final for the first time since 1992
It’s hard to put into words what England winning the World Cup would do for the game. How often can we say that England are world champions in any sport? With the match against New Zealand at Lord’s being the first time the England team can be seen live on terrestrial television for 14 years – it’s going to be live on Channel 4 – this is a massive opportunity for cricket to engage with the wider public once again.
I’d love for a kid to catch sight of cricket on the TV for the first time on Sunday and be captured by it in the way I was sixteen years ago. For Jonny Bairstow or Joe Root to inspire in the way that Michael Vaughan did. After all, success makes you popular.
The Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand at Lord’s will be live on Channel 4 and Sky Sports on Sunday 14th July, with the first ball at 10.30am.
This year, the World Cup will be more than welcome. Norwich City’s rebuilding job after Premier League relegation can be put to the back of minds for just a month and attentions can turn to the fun, excitement and drama in Brazil.
This is probably not the first article of this type you have read. You probably know by now that every football fan has a particular World Cup that they consider to be their ‘first’ – not literally, but the first tournament to capture their imagination and the first to live on in their memories. For me, this accolade belongs to 2002.
As the World Cup began in 2002 I was a few months short of my 10th birthday. With the tournament being held jointly between Japan and South Korea, the time differences meant that matches started early in the mornings here. Before breakfast time. My school must have been very generous because for England matches we were allowed to stay at home and watch before coming into school afterwards, and if your parents were not able to keep you at home for an extra hour or two then the match was played in the school hall on a delay. I can clearly remember heading into school after England had drawn 0-0 with Nigeria and giving a smug-looking smile to my fellow pupils who were having to sit through it not knowing the goalless outcome.
In literal terms, of course, my first World Cup would have been USA ’94, but as I was not yet two years old I can say with some confidence that I remember nothing about it whatsoever. I was also a late developer in becoming a football fan. I grew up in a family of football fans but much preferred watching cartoons until I was about 8. I can remember laying on the living room floor watching England’s famous 5-1 win over Germany in September 2001 and being utterly inconsolable after Norwich lost the play-off final against Birmingham the following May.
The 2002 World Cup did not go too badly for England in the grand scheme of things. David Beckham scored a penalty to beat Argentina which made up for his red card against them in 1998 (see video above) and we made it to the quarter finals before a fluke of a free kick from Ronaldinho went over David Seaman’s head and we went out 2-1 to Brazil. I can also remember The Sun, which my dad had delivered every Saturday, putting their cartoon character Hagar the Horrible on the front page as a preview to England playing Denmark. The Brazilians went on to win their 5th World Cup with a comfortable win over Germany in the final.
To think that ‘my first World Cup’ is now 12 years ago was an eye-opener. 2002 was not a vintage World Cup, but it was my World Cup. As much as I am club before country when it comes to football, the World Cup is such a brilliant tournament that for four weeks every four years I indulge myself in it and revel all the colour and celebration that it has. Inside, it makes me feel warm to think that, to some young boy or girl out there, Brazil 2014 will be their first World Cup.
Perhaps you will read all about it before the kick off in 2026.
LEE PAYNE 