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England went into the Round of 16 as strong favourites to beat Senegal and having topped the group in reasonably comfortable fashion, this was probably justified. Senegal did what they needed to in their group, finishing 2nd behind Netherlands and doing well to overcome Ecuador.

Pre-Match

I went into this match with my usual pessimism. In pre-match interviews, Southgate compared the upcoming challenge with that posed by USA in the groups. Given how dire that match was, I feared we'd be served up the same again.

An early team news leak filled me with some optimism though - Foden, Kane and Saka would be our front 3 and whilst I thought Rashford deserved to keep his place, we'd at least picked some in-form players to flank Harry Kane. The decision not to play Raheem Sterling wasn't one that Southgate needed to make - a burglary at his home in Surrey prompting Sterling to fly home to be with his family.

Unfortunately though, the rest of the lineup increased my pessimism as we went with 8 defensive players including World Class pointer and shouter, Jordan Henderson.

1st Half

Fortunately, Senegal started the game by pressing high up the pitch and not giving our defenders the time they wanted to piss about with the ball. This early energy didn't last long though and for 30 minutes, England passed the ball sideways - our defenders "patiently building up from the back".

Senegal had the better opportunities during our pissing about, creating 2 chances that they should probably have done better with. The big news from Senegal going into the tournament was the loss of Sadio Mane to injury and they missed his ability in front of goal.

I'd had a busy day, taking the-child-gorilla to a 5-year-old, super hero themed birthday party. This had taken it out of me and having started drinking as soon as I'd got home, I got myself another beer and prepared myself for the inevitable sleep.

It didn't take long after falling asleep for my dreams to begin. England finally attacked, Kane feeding Bellingham down the left who put it on a plate for a runner from midfield. To show how fucked up dreams can be, it was Jordan Henderson who scored with the commentator saying "the Senegal players couldn't keep up with him". We all know that Jordan Henderson can't move which is why he points so much.

These crazy dreams.

Something must have happened though because I woke up to find England 1-0 up and on the attack. Was this an inception style dream within a dream? Bellingham was breaking from midfield, feeding Foden whose first time pass put Kane through on goal. 2018's golden boot winner had received an unfair amount of criticism going into this game for not scoring so far in Qatar so the next part was inevitable - Kane smashing it past a useless Edouard Mendy to make it 2-0.

2nd Half

By this point, I'd either fallen asleep again or drunk too much because I don't remember much about the 2nd half. Although, it's more likely that very little actually happened.

At some point, England added a 3rd thanks to a Foden cross being clipped in by Bukayo Saka. Edouard Mendy who had a pretty poor game decided to have a little sit down, waiting for a cuddle from a giant teddy bear.

Full Time

When Argentina narrowly beat Australia the evening before (a game that they should have won very comfortably), they celebrated like they'd won the World Cup.

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Having found these celebrations to be nothing short of laughable and embarrassing, I was desperate for England to celebrate properly which they duly did. Shaking each others hands and receiving pats on the back. A lesson in how to celebrate when you win a game that you're expected to win comfortably.

Match Highlights

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Next Up...

So it's on to France in the Quarter-Finals. France will be going into Saturday's game as favourites and England will do well to keep Kylian Mbappe quiet. In my opinion, Mbappe's currently the best player in the world and if we manage to do that, we'll have a chance of reaching the Semi-Finals for the 3rd major tournament in a row.