The crowd fell in love. “Hey Juuuuude…! “Hey Juuuuude…!” they shouted, convinced, sure, confirmed in their desire to believe in Jude Bellingham. There were about 40,000. But there were many more scattered outside the stadium, in Gelsenkirchen, in Oberhausen, in Essen, in Düsseldorf. For days they had plagued the Ruhr basin—that gloomy landscape, marked by the scars of dying heavy industry—with their white uniforms and crossed flags, throwing parties on every terrace and drinking happily while they waited for the big moment. The mystical revelation occurred in the most primal way imaginable. English-style. For the brave ones. Without much imagination. With a picturesque header that served to disguise a painful game for England, pressed until the end by a limited Serbia that entered the game dazed and only discovered meaning in what they were doing when they stopped speculating.
0
Predrag Rajkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic, Milos Veljkovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Andrija Zivkovic, Nemanja Gudelj, Filip Kostic, Sasa Lukic, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Dusan Vlahovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Filip Mladenovic (Filip Kostic, min. 42), Ivan Ilic (Nemanja Gudelj, min. 45), Luka Jovic (Sasa Lukic, min. 60), Dusan Tadic (Aleksandar Mitrovic, min. 60) and Veljko Birmancevic (Andrija Zivkovic, min. 73)
1
Jordan Pickford, Kieran Trippier, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Marc Guéhi, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden, Harry Kane, Conor Gallagher (Trent Alexander-Arnold, min. 68), Jarrod Bowen (Bukayo Saka, min. 75) and Kobbie Mainoo (Jude Bellingham, min. 85)
Goals
0-1 min. 12: Jude Bellingham
Referee Daniele Orsato
Gudelj (min. 38), Tadic (min. 74)
Bellingham left hibernation in Gelsenkirchen, of course. Like bears after the long sleep of the cold months, the man who went unnoticed in the seven qualifying matches of the last Champions League woke up to the spring heat and the sweet aroma of the lime trees that abound in these places, and went to head that cross with the enthusiasm of soccer players who feel that they are fulfilling their childhood dream by throwing themselves at a dove with their foreheads first. Walker had set up Saka in the central lane and the winger had placed the cross on him to the penalty spot. Against the play, taking advantage of the fact that Kane dragged the three Serbian centre-backs towards the near post, the Madrid player burst in from behind with such force and happiness that Zivkovic, the winger who went to close him down, was thrown away as if he had been hit by a train. The ball sank into the net and England took the lead without further ado. The 13th minute passed and the game had offered nothing more relevant than a cross and a superb header.
Gareth Southgate said that the Euro Cup “is a football carnival.” It was the most luminous thing the English coach said in the haze of his speech on the eve of the match, a rosary of bureaucratic terms that could contain any meaning. It is true that in this tournament, especially in the first phase, folkloric, sentimental, and even tourist considerations weigh heavily. This is allowed by the presence of numerous teams as unblessed by football gifts as Serbia, which arrived in Gelsenkirchen overwhelmed by the complexes. Thus Southgate was able to deploy an alignment with a strong political imprint. Starting with the midfielder. In order not to leave the popular Alexander-Arnold on the bench, a position was invented for him, pivot-lateral, and he relegated the splendid Mainoo and Warthon to the substitution, two specialists who have done much more merit than the Liverpool full-back to play as interiors but they lack media cache and fame, and that is something that fans value a lot these days. This extravagance was enough for England to be blocked in the release of the ball, as Alexander-Arnold ended up moving naturally to his full-back ecosystem and the team lost a foothold in midfield.
England were not successful in the first pass and when they reached the last third of the field, where the Serbians were waiting, Bellingham, Foden and Harry Kane, all trying to get inside, overlapped too often, as if they were not sure what to do to combine against a tight defense in your area. Bellingham’s goal had the virtue of solving this problem. At 1-0, Southgate sent the team to wait at the back, and then a sort of reverse miracle occurred. England, probably the most gifted squad in Europe, dedicated the rest of the evening to waiting in their own field, giving the ball to Pickford to move it long to see if Kane or Bellingham could hold it, and going on the counterattack in a process that clouded Foden and isolated Kane himself, the most ingenious figures of a flat team.
Thus, the surprised crowd of pilgrim fans watched as Tadic, Vlahovic, Savic and Gudelj entered the territory of the favorite and began to rush towards him. England would not have survived if Stones, Walker and above all Declan Rice, a giant in the art of balancing and managing abundance and scarcity, had not appeared. There are footballers who shine with the wind in their favor. Rice lights up on the darkest nights. Against Serbia he gave a recital of intercepting passes and guiding evacuations under pressure. Without the participation of the Arsenal midfielder, Serbia would surely have scored their 23rd game.
This is how England won and this is how Bellingham was crowned, the most striking part of an exasperating match, as reflected in the poorest statistics of shots on goal in a Euro Cup match: 11 in total, 6 in favor of Serbia, 5 in favor of England.
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