'God saved the Queen': How the world's media reacted to England's World Cup shootout win over Colombia

There was much talk of curses being broken and dreams being alive as the world's press witnessed England win a first-ever World Cup shootout

“England end the curse” is Mundo Deportivo’s headline, a theme that featured in every write-up in every language when it came to describing a nail-biting penalty shootout victory that sent the Three Lions into the World Cup quarter-final.

“Ghostbusters” says the front page of L’Equipe, who also conclude that “England can dream.”

“The black run is over,” cheered Le Parisien of England ending their hoodoo. “The key to this revival perhaps has its roots in pain; that of Gareth Southgate… he had made it his mission to change the course of history.”

“The greatest thing is that it ends this failure hanging over them…The England of 2018 ended the curse and they qualified,” said Guillem Balague in AS.

“From the outset this continued to flag up just how deep Gareth Southgate’s revolution has been,” said Barcelona-based SPORT.

“The road is long to bring football ‘home’, commented Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, “but it continues.”

“Pickford performed the miracle,” added Gazzetta. “The Everton goalkeeper was the priest who scared away the demons of England’s past.”

Religious imagery was everywhere after this most unholy of games and particularly in the God-fearing nation of Colombia.

“I knew that God was Colombian when he scored the unthinkable, unexpected Mina goal in the last minute,” wrote Gabriel Meluk in Colombia’s El Tiempo. “But I also know that he saved the Queen when he put Uribe’s penalty against the bar and saw Pickford save from Bacca.

“Colombia’s goodbye to the World Cup: with honour but without glory.”

“Savior” was also the front page of the New York Daily News as Pickford’s 'glove of God' shootout save became the image every Manhattan commuter would see on Wednesday morning while the New York Post had "God save the Queen."

El Espectador in Colombia lamented the “carousel of emotions” that came with the shootout. “Penalties are a lottery, some end up celebrating and the others, broken-hearted, destroyed, smashed into a thousand pieces.”

“Colombia were left broken. Qualification was in their hands and in the opening and closing of their eyes it was gone.”

El Espectador also spoke of a team that will lose some old faces but that has a bright future: “This World Cup marked the end of a cycle for many faces who in their time have made history and inspired the generation who grew up watching them win.”

Madrid-based sports daily AS went as far as to suggest the Colombians might have been spurred on by the “insulting front page of The Sun” as they brimmed over with passion in a game where nobody seems to have been impressed with the refereeing.

The Colombian newspapers decided that their team had done all it could as they coped with the pain of a shootout defeat. “We could ask no more… they left their skin and their soul out there,” wrote El Colombiano.

“Colombia says goodbye to the World Cup with no reproach, and despite the sadness, the fans can be calm because they saw a team that left everything on the field.”

“A star was born,” say Marca of Barcelona defender Yerry Mina, who also got full marks from another Madrid paper, AS, while Mundo Deportivo described him as Colombia’s “golden head.”