By Eniola Olatunji
…Harry Kane failed to cane France loses decisive penalty.
The Three Lions of England failed to roar on Saturday night at the Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar as she slumped to the defending champions, Les Bleus of France 2-1 and Captain of England, Harry Kane joined the captains that wept sore after their loses.
Harry Kane failed to cane the French team as he had the opportunity to level up from penalty spots. Kane had equalized from the spot when ‘small pepper’ Bukayo Saka was brought down in the box at 54th minute. Theo Fernandez had shoved goal bound Mason Mount and Nicolas Gallo of Columbia who was in charge of VAR had to call in the Ref Wilton who changed his decision and awarded a second penalty but Kane blew it into the skies.
France opened scoring through a ridiculous shot, a grass cutter from Tchouameni that went through the legs of an England defender into the net at 17th minute. It was an Antoine Griezmann pass. Griezmann it was who connected Oliver Giroud who had missed two glaring chances to score the winner fancifully at 78th minute. And England wept.
England had beaten Iran 6-1; drawn 0-0 with USA and spanked fellow European nation, Wales 3-0. Senegal fell 3-0 in the round of 16 having 12 goals and conceding only one goal.
France had piped Tunisia 1-0; beaten Denmark 2-1 and outplayed Australia4-1 at the group stages. Poland fell to France 3-1 in the round of 16.
The first time they met was on 10th May 1923 which England won 4-1 and the last time they met was 13th June 2017 which France won 3-2. They met several times in between but I chose for brevity sake to record for you between 2000 and 2017.
On 12th September 2000 it was 1-1; at Euro Championship of 13th June 2004 France won 2-1; 26th March 2008 France won by a lone goal; 7th November 2010 France won again 2-1; at EUFA Championsip of 11th June 2012 it was 1-1 draw; on 17th November 2015 England snoozed France 2-0.
Ref Wilton Pereira Sampaio of Brazil (40 years) was stoutly in control of the match. Wilton had handled Senegal 0 Netherlands 2; Poland 2 Saudi Arabia 0 at the group stages and then Netherland 3 USA 1 match in the round of 16 but no one protested like Portugal Captain protested that Ref Facundo Tello of Argentina should not have handled their match against Morocco where they were sent packing in the quarterfinal by a lone goal. Wilton was alleged to have awarded a controversial penalty to Saudi Arabia in 2018 and failed to give Poland player a second yellow card in that match.
Defending Champions, France will now meet the Atlas Lion of Morocco on Wednesday at 8pm West African Time in the 2nd Semifinal.
On Tuesday at 8pm, the 1st Semifinal between Argentina and Croatia will be played.
Eniola Olatunji reporting.
#FifaworldcupQatar2022.
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