Gareth Southgate, duly, still believed. As the clock ticked into the 94th minute, and England looked like they were still going, the manager evidently wasn’t thinking about what he was going to say. He was still thinking about how they could rescue it, what could be done.
“I had belief right the way through that we’d get the goal. I didn’t think it would be as late as it was. I wasn’t ready to go home yet and clearly the players felt the same way.”
One player certainly wasn’t, and there is an argument he thinks in a different way than any previous England player. Jude Bellingham has now given the national team a moment they’ve never had. There’s never been salvation like this.
There’s never been a last-minute knock-out goal - or later - to actually keep England in a tournament. The closest was Gary Lineker’s penalty against Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup quarter-final, but that was in the 83rd minute. It wasn’t as desperately necessary as this.
Southgate actually admitted it had flashed across his mind to take Bellingham or Harry Kane off, but it was only a flash.
“Harry and Jude, physically, with 15 minutes to go, you’re looking at them thinking ‘should we be refreshing those positions’? Maybe that can make the difference… but you know they’re capable of the sorts of things they did. That’s why you stick with those players.”
Those “sorts of things” doesn’t quite cover what Bellingham did, mind. The line is that this can’t be scripted but it’s actually the opposite. A bicycle kick to save a campaign is vintage Roy of the Rovers stuff, that tends to be eye-rolling in films because it is so hackneyed. When it happens in real life, of course, it’s the total opposite. It’s exhilarating, and scarcely believable.
This is what is really so different about Bellingham, though, that is even more important to the tournament than his intervention in this game. If Southgate was a believer, Bellingham is a zealot - most of all in himself.
This is a player who creates his own reality. His mindset is described by those around the camp as unlike anything England have had. There is sheer will there.
It was a thinking that led many people in football to argue over the last year that this might at last be the key final detail. While England have now had so much talent for almost a decade, they haven’t really had this kind of winner.
The players had been through too many close calls. There has always been something of a doubt, that can manifest itself in moments like this. It would have been so easy to imagine previous England sides just allowing this game to peter out. The team had been bickering on the pitch.
Bellingham was instead seen as someone who could just drive them over the line. An awful lot has changed since such discussions, but they now feel all the more relevant.
We have direct proof of what so many have long said. Bellingham delivered. The actual reality of his performance shouldn’t be overlooked either, of course.
Bellingham was far from perfect. The very fact Southgate even considered subbing is a testament to that. There were still periods when he tried to do too much, or when he moved into the wrong areas, even where he slowed down play. It still isn’t completely right between himself and Kane, or the rest of the attack. It still doesn’t work properly, as indicated by how Southgate changed half of it, including the dynamic.
That is something the manager has to think about before Switzerland, who look primed to take advantage of such flaws. There are so many gaps to be further exploited.
That’s the thing about late goals, too. They can re-energise a team and replenish them, but they can’t re-organise them. Such climaxes can be an illustration of flaws as much as strengths.
That’s not the case with individual players, though. Such influence at such moments is only a sign of strength.
Bellingham has this in abundance. It’s something he’s continued from this sensational first season at Real Madrid.
It’s another important reality to consider from that performance. Bellingham indeed wasn’t perfect, but he still offered the perfect intervention. He didn’t feel any doubt from what had happened before. He instead ensured England did something they’d never managed before.
The wonder now, a mere three games from glory, is whether that can be the same for the Euros as a whole.
