In a World Cup full of surprises, happy have been those football followers who have shifted their loyalties quickly from one team to another. On my original wish list for the final was a Brazil-England encounter at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Sunday, 15 July. With the ‘Three Lions’ cruising through to the semi-finals and the Samba Boys ousted by Belgium, my revised wish list is of an England-France face off for the FIFA World Cup trophy.
When England last won the World Cup – the Jules Rimet Trophy then – 52 years ago, I was still an adolescent. For many years after that last Saturday in July 1966, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Alan Ball, the Charlton brothers and Gordon Banks, besides Pele (Brazil), Eusebio (Portugal) and Uwe Seeler (West Germany) were my gods. I have had to wait through 14 World Cups to see an England team playing like champions again, though the 1990 squad too, coached by Bobby Robson, had managed to enter the semi-finals.
England’s football fans are all excited about becoming world champions again. Illustration courtesy Austin Coutinho
Since there was neither television coverage nor radio commentary of the World Cup matches in India in 1966, we relied on newspaper reports to know what had transpired in matches the previous day. (However, we managed to hook on to BBC for the India-England Test series of 1967, albeit with a lot of effort.) A sports crazy uncle of mine would buy sports magazines published in England from the stalls at Flora Fountain, which would give me the opportunity to know my gods more intimately. Thus grew my interest in world football.
England is the home of football. The game was first played there in the 12th century but banned by King Richard II because peasants were neglecting their archery practice. King Charles II then revived football in England in the 1680s. The FA (Football Association) was formed in 1863 and the first FA Cup final was played at Kennington Oval in 1872. #itscominghome is, therefore, trending in Blighty, and England’s football fans are all excited about becoming world champions again.
The other fancied team, France, popularly known as ‘Les Bleus’, learned their football from English sailors at Le Havre around 1872. Their national ‘Ligue’ commenced in September 1932, a couple of years after the French President of FIFA Jules Rimet had initiated the first ever World Cup tournament in Uruguay.
France too, like England, has won the World Cup once. Led by the present French coach Didier Deschamps, they beat Brazil 3-0 in the final of 1998. Besides, the Frenchmen have entered the last-four stage of the World Cup on five more occasions – including 2018 – finishing as runners-up in 2006, in third place in 1958 and 1986, and in fourth place in 1982.
The third team in the semi-finals, the Belgians, despite having some great players in their ranks over the years, like Enzo Scifo, Marc Wilmots, and Jan Ceulemans have had the best finish of fourth position in the 1986 edition of the World Cup played in Mexico. In 2018, the ‘Red Devils’ have been impressive, with five wins on the trot, including a comeback victory over Japan and an exciting conquest of the Brazilians in the quarter-finals.
When they meet France on 10 July in the first semi-finals, it will be the abilities of Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Nacer Chadli, Kevin de Bruyne and Vincent Kompany pitched against the creativity of Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and others. It will also be the strategy and game reading of Roberto Martinez against that of the foxy Deschamps. In my opinion, France looks to have a slight edge over its European neighbour in this encounter.
Croatia, the fourth team to enter the semi-finals of World Cup 2018, was a part of Yugoslavia till 1991. They made it to the last four stage only seven years later, losing to France in the semi-finals and then beating Netherlands to gain third place. Since then, they have hardly impressed in the 2002, 2006 and 2014 editions of the World Cup, and even failed to qualify for World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
In its semi-finals against the ‘Three Lions’ on 11 July, Croatia, fondly known as ‘Vatreni’ (The Fiery Ones), shall require all the firepower of Andrej Kramaric and Domagoj Vida, besides the experience of players like Luka Modric, Dejan Lovren, Ivan Perisic and Ivan Rakitic to win. Man for man, the Croatians shall have to play out of their skins to stop England from advancing to the finals.
Football pundits believe that the World Cup of 2018 in Russia, which has seen so many upsets till date, is likely to produce a new winner. But neither England nor France, having come this far, would like to yield space to the two fledgling squads. Deschamps and Southgate will, therefore, have their plans ready and their wards all charged up for their respective semi-finals.
In a final between England and France, my money will be on the former; for nostalgic reasons as well as for reasons of better overall skills and strategy. It may be a tough ask for the French defence to take on the speed and guile of Kane, Lingard, Alli, Sterling, Vardy and others, unless they are all woefully off-colour. The England defence will surely be wary of Mbappe.
Is it coming back home to England? And is it bringing with it a knighthood for Gareth Southgate as some English experts are now contemplating? We will know for sure only the night of Sunday, 15 July 2018.
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