England is a steamroller – AS.com

In this European Championship of the fighting without gloves, of the stampedes from one side to the other, of the permanent hammer blows, in this, the highest-scoring European Championship ever, England advances with a firm step, but with a plan and a direction completely opposite to the rest: it does not admit more crushing than yours.

The English are in the semifinals for the second tournament in a row, that's right. And for this, as before Ukraine, they adopted an architecture that has no fissures, that does not accept friction. Once again they finished without conceding and they appear in the last two matches of the tournament without having conceded in the previous five. Tremendous.

The truth is that Southgate moves chips and alters strategies but the result is always the same. On this occasion he recovered all four defenders, with Walker as a winger and not as a center-back, and he also opted for violinists like Mount and Sancho in the line in which he has the most options, the one behind Kane. The English center forward has assumed that role that we are seeing so much in this European Championship: the nine playing for the team instead of the team playing for the nine. He retaliated against Germany and repeated twice against Ukraine, which shows that finally the piece that was most misaligned fits.

Sterling was a devil again, on one side or the other, and his was the assist of the goal that paved the way and thwarted Ukraine's plans. The game lasted four minutes. As against Sweden in the round of 16, Shevchenko drew three centrals with which to hold the crash and make it long, just the opposite of what happened. The disadvantage on the scoreboard forced him to respond with the ball, something that he suffered without Malinovskiy in the eleven.

Nor is it that England conceded much, it never does. It is an England designed to overwhelm from defense, to impose its authority from the heart of the field. Sterling's changes of pace threatened without fanfare, Sancho's attempts were sporadic and intermittent. The feeling with England is that they control everything, absolutely everything.

Judgment

The set piece returned to smile at him, too. A perfect cross from Shaw was headed by the Maguire Tower without fuss. That dominance of the strategy that was seen in the World Cup continues years later, when every day it is more important to prevail in this fate. Almost then, Shaw returned to center, this time in play, and the one who finished off with a head was Kane, connected to the European Championship definitively.

The England of dominance and robustness, which will play at home six games of the seven that can give it the title, finally felt liberated in attack. Southgate made changes seeing themselves already in the semifinals, but the team kept hitting. HEnderson made the fourth, again in a corner that uncovers the English as the most powerful team in the tournament from set pieces.

The final change dance served to show muscle and discover that Southgate has as many weapons on the bench as in the starting eleven. It doesn't matter who plays and how. This England is a steamroller that crushed Ukraine and already has the European Championship where it wanted, at Wembley and within two games to be champion. Let's see who can discuss it. For now, Denmark will be the first to try in the semifinals. Lucky for them …