England beat Switzerland in last minute to reach semi-finals

No surprises in Düsseldorf. England had to go through on penalties on Saturday 6 July to eliminate Switzerland, after a 1-1 draw that went into extra time (5-3 on penalties). The Three Lions have qualified once again for the semi-finals of Euro 2024, three years after being unfortunate finalists in “their” Euro at Wembley. They will face the winner of the other quarter-final of the evening between the Netherlands and Turkey.

However, it was the Swiss who opened the scoring, thanks to AS Monaco striker Breel Embolo, who came to unlock an extremely tight match by taking a cross from Dan Ndoye, already deflected once by John Stones in front of his goal (1-0, 75th). But Bukayo Saka, the most prominent player on the English side, reduced the gap immediately with a sublime cross shot that caught the far top corner of Yann Sommer’s net (1-1, 80th), to force extra time.

While many French fans complain about Didier Deschamps and his men’s game plan, the English have hardly reconciled the spectators of this Euro with football. It took until the 51st minute of the match for a shot to finally be on target and it was scored by the Swiss Breel Embolo, on a pivot strike too weak to worry Jordan Pickford in his goal.

Fortunately, extra time was more lively, with Declan Rice forcing Yann Sommer to make a great save on a very powerful long-range shot (95th). The rest of the chances were Swiss, with a direct corner attempt from Xherdan Shaqiri (117th) or a shot from Zeki Amdouni with the tip of his foot, pushed back in extremis by the English goalkeeper (119th). But the fate of the Nati was finally sealed from the first shot of the penalty shootout, totally missed by Manuel Akanji, too soft and easily stopped by Pickford.