UEFA EURO CUP 2012 - DAY 8: England eliminated Sweden with a 3-2 win

UEFA EURO CUP 2012 - DAY 8: England eliminated Sweden with a 3-2 win. Ukraine was defeated 2-0 by France.

Standings

France 4 points
England 4 points
Ukraine 3 points
Sweden 0 points

Next Matches:

June 19
England vs Ukraine, 2 PM - TSN

Sweden vs France, 2 PM - TSN 2

WARSAW, POLAND—England does not enter a major tournament without months spent handwringing about its lack of depth at the striker position.
All of the attention before their arrival at this tournament was shifted to their best player at that position, Wayne Rooney, who is serving a two-match ban for a red card during qualifying.
In Ukraine, the pre-match focus has shifted onto Wayne Rooney’s new hair and poorly socialized forward Andy Carroll’s suitability up front.
Lost in the wistful thinking was Rooney’s replacement, Danny Welbeck, a well thought of, but largely ignored, teammate of the great man at Manchester United.
Welbeck responded on Friday night with one of the great goals in tournament history, properly timed to win his team a game they had threatened to toss away for long stretches.
England’s 3-2 win puts them in good position to qualify for the second round, though they are headed to the gladiator arena in Donetsk to play the co-hosts on Group D’s final day. You have not felt fear until you’ve heard 40,000 hysterical Ukrainians calling for your hides. That’s England’s spot on the horizon now.
The permutations are still myriad, but England’s simplest route to the quarter-finals is to win and let the rest sort itself out.
Against the game Swedes, the English entirely controlled the studied rhythm of the first half. They took the lead through Carroll, on an emphatic headed ball.
But at the half, signs of trouble. As Carroll, a fairly legendary nitwit, left the field, he loosened the knot in his hair and luxuriantly fluffed it up while Swedes stormed past.
It was a meaningless gesture, but the sort that drives opponents mad.
After losing their first match to Ukraine, Swedish manager Erik Hamren branded his team “cowards.” One can imagine his halftime talk on Friday: “You’re going to let yourselves be beaten by a guy with a ponytail?!”
Sweden unsurprisingly came out storming in the second.
Glen Johnson looked set to share the blame with Carroll’s conditioner when he chested a rebounding ball into his own net early. Sweden then briefly took the lead through the drive-in-sized forehead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
But where they have collapsed in the past, England found courage through their younger generation. Theo Walcott equalized on a long, laser strike that the Swedish ’keeper could not sight through traffic.
Welbeck’s moment came in the 78th. Walcott tore down the right wing and flung a ball into the middle. Welbeck, charging in, was already by it.
But the 21-year-old wedged his hip against a defender, planted his left foot, swiveled 180 degrees and reached back to redirect the ball into the net with his right instep. It was more than a great goal. It was a Pele sort of goal.
Given that it’s England, we will now suffer through an inevitable selection crisis, as teeth are gnashed over whether to replace Welbeck with Rooney, or whether instead to sacrifice a midfield starter (ahem, James Milner) and play them both.
Given the team’s recent history, that’s an unusually good problem going forward.