Kolkata: Remember Kabir Khan from the 2007 Bollywood film Chak De! India? Based on a true story of the Indian women’s hockey team’s 2002 CWG triumph, former men’s hockey captain Kabir (played by Shahrukh Khan) had missed a penalty in a crucial World Cup encounter against Pakistan costing India the game.
Seven years later, Kabir returned as a coach of the Indian women’s team and led a group of 16 young, inexperienced talented girls to CWG gold. England coach Gareth Southgate would probably relate to this emotion.
Back to 1996, at the Wembley Stadium, it was Southgate, who missed a crucial penalty that cost England dearly against Germany at the European Championship semifinal. The tie had gone into penalty shoot-out with 1-1 scoreline after Alan Shearer’s early goal was canceled by current German U-21 coach Stefan Kuntz.
Southgate went forward to take the final shot of the tie-breaker but was denied by Andreas Kopke to the dismay of thousands of heartbroken English fans. Germany eventually won the competition.
Fast forward to 2021, at the same venue, against the same opponents, in the same tournament, Southgate redeemed himself, this time as a manager with his ever-talented men to avenge the 1996 mishap.
Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane scored one each in the second half to hand England a 2-0 win and advance to the quarterfinals of Euro 2020 — their best ever show since 1996. The 50-year-old held his emotions after the game and denied that Germany’s loss had sent a warning to the rest of the tournament’s sides.
“I think the players were immense right the way through the team,” Southgate said. “Today was immense. But emotionally and physically there is a cost. It’s a dangerous moment for us. The warmth of success, the feeling we only have to turn up to win the thing, we know it’s going to be an immense challenge.
“The players know that. They should feel confident from the way they’ve played. We came here with an intention and we’ve not achieved that yet. We can look back on today in the future. I want to get Saturday right,” he added referring to their quarterfinal tie against Ukraine.
England’s last semifinal outing at a major tournament came in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and Southgate believed that his boys can create history on the weekend. While Kabir won the tournament in the movie, there is still a lot left for Southgate to achieve and hopefully, he won’t disappoint.
“We haven’t put together a semifinal (England made the last four at Russia 2018) followed by a quarterfinal since 1966. These players keep writing history. They have the chance again. We’ve only been to one European Championship semifinal. They have the chance to do something really special,” Southgate stated.
