With a clear success, England moves into the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Harry Kane finally scored his first goal in this world tournament against Senegal, BVB professional Jude Bellingham also played a key role. The African champion, on the other hand, missed the chance to surprise.
Harry Kane breathes a sigh of relief – and with him the whole of England: led by their captain, who has finally scored, the Three Lions have made it into the quarter-finals of the World Cup, the dream of their first major title in 56 years has been alive. Last but not least, thanks to Jude Bellingham, the strong midfield engine, and the brutally efficient exploitation of chances, the football motherland defeated African champions Senegal 3-0 (2-0). England have never won a knockout game at a World Cup higher.
Jordan Henderson (38th) and Kane (45th 3) with his first goal of the tournament set the course for victory shortly before the change of sides – Dortmund’s Bellingham was decisively involved in each case. Bukayo Saka (57th) made everything clear, this time Kane was the initiator. England remained undefeated in their eighth World Cup duel with a team from Africa. In the quarterfinals on Saturday, however, a completely different caliber awaits: defending champion France with super striker Kylian Mbappé.
For Senegal, the boldly formulated dream of the world title ends in the first knockout round. 20 years ago, the Africans were in the quarter-finals, but without the injured superstar Sadio Mané from Bayern Munich, the performance in Qatar was worthy of all honor. The last African team in the tournament is Morocco, who play their round of 16 against Spain on Tuesday.
Senegal started with five players who make their money in the Premier League. Ismail Jakobs, who had won the U21 European Championship with Germany last year, was there again as a left-back. The notorious Senegalese drummers and trumpeters provided a grandiose setting in the 65,985-strong Al Bayt Stadium. The game could not keep up at first. England controlled but didn’t know what to do with their possession.
And defensively, the 1966 World Champion was vulnerable. Senegal had the first big chance through Ismaila Sarr (22nd), after a bad pass from Harry Maguire. The Africans, spurred on by their recovered coach Aliou Cisse, upped the ante. After a mistake by Saka, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford had to save against Boulaye Dia (31′).
England looked battered – and then took the lead out of nowhere. The ball went quickly forward on the left for the first time, Bellingham had an eye for Henderson, who deliberately put it in. The favorites were now wide awake, just before half-time Bellingham opened up another dangerous game situation with an attack and a strong pass to Phil Foden. He found his hitherto unfortunate captain – and Kane threw the ball into the net.
Storm legend Gary Lineker, who with ten goals in major tournaments is now “only” England’s number two behind Kane (11), celebrated 19-year-old Bellingham on Twitter. This is “incredibly good” and has his feet everywhere in the game. The English fans agreed to the Beatles classic “Hey Jude”. Cisse tried to turn the game around with a triple substitution at the restart. But England didn’t let anything burn.