Sterling and Saka lead charge as England throw off old anxieties

Gareth Southgate values control almost above anything else. For England, this has been a tournament about control. He has talked about aping Portugal at Euro 2016 and France at the World Cup, of learning how to manage games. But there are two ways of controlling games. There is controlling games by attacking, as England did with remarkable intensity and consistency between the start of the second half and the end of the first half of extra time, and there is controlling the game as England did in the second half of extra time, keeping the ball away from Denmark with such efficiency that they managed only one touch in the England box in that period. Control, it turns out, doesn’t have to be boring.

Southgate had opted for a back four from the start, which meant, rather than match up shape-for-shape against Denmark’s wing-backs, he had Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka looking to attack the spaces behind them. After all the accusations of over-conservatism, in his biggest game for three years, Southgate opted for the more aggressive option. He could have started with the side he had used against Germany, when Kieran Trippier and Luke Shaw won the battle of the wing-backs and effectively nullified Robin Gosens and Joshua Kimmich.

Here he went for more of a game of chicken, England effectively daring Joakim Mæhle and Jens Stryger Larsen to advance and risk being caught out with balls played behind them. That had worked against Ukraine, but then England was always likely to control midfield and possession against Ukraine. Denmark presented a different level of opposition.

For a quarter of an hour or so, the plan seemed to be working. Sterling in particular found space behind Stryger Larsen. But then Denmark began to press higher and England began to make mistakes. As anxiety set in, the slick passing of the early stages evaporated. England slipped into bad habits, whereby every pass is either long and forward or sideways and safe.

As Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips became less able to control the midfield, Sterling and Saka became less and less involved (England had 62% possession in the first 15 minutes, just 45% in the 15 that followed; the number of touches Sterling had halved).

This was twitchy, anxious England, the one that had seemed to have been banished against Germany and Ukraine. It gave the ball away needlessly and snapped into tackles and became involved in wrestling matches when it had no need to, conceding cheap free-kicks. Jordan Pickford had one of his jittery periods. The Danish opener arrived as no surprise.

England’s response to going behind for the first time in the tournament was exemplary. Perhaps Denmark dropped off slightly, but the crisp passing through midfield returned and, in turn, Sterling and Saka emerged. The influence of the wingers on the game essentially served as a barometer for how England were doing. First Saka laid in Kane and only a remarkable block from Kasper Schmeichel denied Sterling a goal, then Kane fed Saka to cross for Sterling, who would have scored had Simon Kjær not bundled the ball into the net in attempting to stop him.

That intensity never really dropped; Denmark occasionally threatened on the break in the second half but fundamentally England dominated. Southgate’s gamble paid off. The issue was finding a second breakthrough once the wildness of the first half had been replaced by a more predictable structure. For a long while it felt like being one of those nights of England battering away fruitlessly; it wasn’t that there was no creativity, more that the balls wouldn’t quite drop for England, that Danish bodies kept getting in the way.

Slinging balls into the box didn’t really work. Against Ukraine, England had been a persistent threat in the air, winning 73% of aerial duels, but against a back three of Kjær, Jannik Vestergaard and Andreas Christensen they were never going to be such a menace, and won just 52%. Yet corners and free-kicks are a key part of England’s arsenal and three times in a row early in the second half, Harry Maguire, rumbling forward like a moai being walked from the quarries on Easter Island, won headers from set plays, the second of them drawing a telescopic-armed save from Schmeichel.