I got a sense of deja vu after we scored early and inevitably stopped playing to sit on it as the game wore on, and it occured to me this has happened before and turned out bad those times as well.
Euro 96 Semi-final: England 1-1 Germany - Shearer 3rd minute goal (lost on pens)
Euro 2000 Group stage: England 2-3 Portugal - Scholes 3rd minute goal
Euro 2004 Quarter-final: England 2-2 Portugal - Owen 3rd minute goal (lost on pens)
World Cup 2018 Semi-final: England 1-2 Croatia - Trippier 5th minute goal
Euro 2020 Final: England 1-1 Italy - Shaw 2nd minute goal (lost on pens)
Tbf I dont recall England sitting back soon after scoring like we did last night in all of those, although there were similarities in how the games unfolded in 2000 and 2018.
7
Comments
The stats show they deserved to win the game. We had serious momentum in the first half an hour but didn't truly capitalise.
Scoring that early may have hindered us slightly, because for all of the talk of having a 0-0 mentality etc, deep down the players will know that they hold on to the lead and it's won, so usually teams play within themselves slightly when 1-0 up.
The most telling stat for me is that our star striker, regarded as one of the best in the world, didn't touch the ball in the opponent's box last night in 120 minutes of football