England beat Sweden in the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup 2018, 2-0. The headers of Harry Maguire and Dele Alli were instrumental in the English victory. England will now face the winner of Croatia versus Russia in the semifinals. England have booked a semifinal berth for the first time since 1990.
England went with an unchanged side. Initially both the teams started slowly and later began to open up. Harry Kane who has scored the most -6 goals in the tournament didn’t manage to score a goal in the quarterfinals.
It was another Harry, Harry Maguire who scored a header in the 30th minute from a towering header off Ashley Young’s corner kick. Harry Maguire became the first English player after Michael Oven to score in a World Cup Quarterfinal in 2002.
First 30 minutes saw only one shot on target from England. England went 1-0 into halftime. Dele Alli scored another header in the 59th minute to propel England’s lead to 2-0. This was Alli’s first World Cup finals goal.
Sweden wasn’t able to breach the English defence. English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford blocked two shots from Marcus Berg to keep England in the winning position.
England had a ball possession of 58% with a pass accuracy of 79% while their counterparts Sweden had a ball possession of 42% with a pass accuracy of 72%.
#ENG WIN! @England book their place in the semi-finals for the first time since 1990!#SWEENG // #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/zOqZAD0kgE
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) July 7, 2018
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👉 #ENG have scored their eighth set piece goal this #WorldCup, at least two more than any other team
👉 Harry Maguire is the first player to score in a World Cup quarter-final match for @England since @themichaelowen in 2002#SWEENG pic.twitter.com/rRsmHFARum
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) July 7, 2018