England vs Colombia: Gareth Southgate’s men took on a South American side at their own game - and won

Jose Pekerman took the moral high ground after the game but the hill England are standing on is far more fertile

How surreal this all was. England had just played Colombia at the World Cup, and afterwards the losing coach was walking into the press conference room to deride the cynical tactics of the opposition team. Except - in a change to your scheduled programming - the losing coach was Jose Pekerman, the veteran Argentinian. And the opposition team was England.

“Players fall in the box,” Pekerman complained. “They collide and fall. It’s hurtful. You have to try and stand in the shoes of the players. They are subject to situations which shouldn’t be present in football. A player fakes a foul. They are trying to get the referee to book another player. These interruptions are bad.”

How surreal. And how delicious. For most of the 120 minutes during which this game was sporadically played, after all, Colombia came not to stir it, but to spoil it: rough-house tackles, sneaky grapples, sulky cynicism and tag-team dissent. But instead of dropping their parasols and affecting an air of prim outrage, England matched them: stud for stud, hustle for hustle, argument for argument, fall for fall. Their nerve-shredding 4-3 win on penalties was, ultimately the end that justified the means, a triumphant end to a game played with the very worst of intentions.

It was Jordan Henderson rolling around as if the glancing blow he had received from the head of Wilmar Barrios was actually a beaker of sulphuric acid. It was Jesse Lingard getting booked for leaving a foot in on Carlos Sanchez. It was Harry Maguire taking an unpunished dive in the Colombian area, or Raheem Sterling taking a surreptitious tug on Yerry Mina’s shorts. It was England constantly taking the opportunity to make their case to referee Mark Geiger, which extended to the coaching staff rushing after him down the tunnel at half-time, while the Colombians dawdled and chatted amongst themselves. Maybe it was no coincidence that Geiger awarded Harry Kane a penalty just eight minutes into the second half.

This has been, in many ways, a long time in coming. To watch an England team snide with the very best, on a global stage, felt guiltily cathartic, however upsetting it must be to those of an older generation. England left Moscow with a clear message to the remaining seven teams in the tournament: the meekness, the false discretion and the naivety of the past, are in the past. No longer will this England play by different rules. No longer will they simply cower in the corner and whimper: “Please don’t hurt us.” For perhaps the first time since 1966, when England took on a fractious, furious Argentina in a quarter-final at Wembley and - this bit is usually forgotten - gave back as much as they took, an England side took on a South American side at their own game, and won.

(REUTERS)

Afterwards, a Russian journalist took issue with England’s play-acting, rolling and general exaggeration of contact. “Your generation of players did not fall as much as the current generation of players,” he said, addressing Southgate. “What do you think happened to the spirit of English football? Your generation played like rocks. The current generation fall every time the wind blows.”

Southgate allowed himself a chuckle. “Maybe we’re getting a bit smarter,” he smiled. “Maybe we’re now playing by the rules the rest of the world are playing by. I thought there were many, many fouls in the game and I don't think we conceded anywhere near the number of our opponents. [It was 13, to Colombia’s 23.] If we went down, it’s because we were fouled.”

Was all this the final, posthumous bequest of the Sam Allardyce era? A tempting idea, but probably not. English football is simply a more polyglot culture these days, taking its influence from the global game as much as its indigenous roots, with the astronomical stakes of elite football simultaneously creating a culture where you play not by some imagined, boarding-school code, but by the laws as enforced by the referee.

All of which said: England will need to be careful. Ashley Young was extremely lucky to avoid a red card when he went in over the ball, with studs, against Barrios in the second half of normal time (England even got a free-kick out of it). Referees far stronger than Geiger await in the last eight and beyond, and they will now be scrutinising England for potential infractions. “I think in the next match, England will be more careful,” Pekerman predicted. “Today we were on the receiving end of this. It’s been so obvious, too obvious.”

To delirious England fans pumped to the gills by the prospect of glory, Ambrosia must taste of South American tears. How the tables have turned. While their opponents bleat, England march on. Pekerman may have tried to claim the moral high ground, but England will far prefer the vista from where they are standing: the quarter-final ground.