Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane save England against Slovakia in last 16

86 seconds away from a resounding elimination. Trailing 1-0 for over an hour, England relied on a spectacular and valuable equaliser from Jude Bellingham in second-half stoppage time on Sunday 30 June to secure extra time and then their place in the quarter-finals of the Euro. Sloppy in attack and beaten in the duels, Gareth Southgate’s men produced a poor performance that could have seen them sent packing, like Italy.

Slovakia, the 45th nation in the world in the Fifa rankings, immediately set the tone by creating two chances through David Hancko (5th), then Lukas Haraslin (11th) before opening the scoring through Ivan Schranz, perfectly served by David Strelec. A goal symptomatic of the English woes, beaten in all the duels. Overwhelmed, the English were also punished with three yellow cards in the first 17 minutes of the match.

The Three Lions struggled to create chances. So from there to converting the rare ones that presented themselves… Her Majesty’s subjects competed in clumsiness, like the completely missed header by Harry Kane alone less than 10 meters from Martin Dubravka’s goal (77th). Before that, Phil Foden had a goal disallowed for offside (50th) and David Strelec came close to breaking the midfield after a careless error by John Stones on a teammate’s service (55th).

After a post found from afar by Declan Rice (81st), symbol of the lack of efficiency of the four-star English attack line, Jude Bellingham finally equalized with an acrobatic overhead kick on the gong for England’s first and only shot on target before extra time. Freed, the English then took the lead at the very beginning of extra time thanks to a furious header from Harry Kane at close range (91st). Far from showing serenity, they suffered again at the end of the match without cracking. They will face the Swiss in the quarter-finals, who beat the defending champion Italy, who now dream of beating the second finalist of the previous edition.