FIFA World Cup: Flies in Mouth, Nervy England Edge Out Tenacious Tunisia

England skipper Harry Kane, who scored both the goals in his team’s 2-1 win over Tunisia, said his teammates coped with not just a resolute Tunisia defence in Volgograd but also flies, as they edged out three points in their FIFA World Cup opener. This, incidentally, was the first time England had won their first game of a major tournament since the 2006 World Cup.

Kane gave England the lead in the 11th minute but Ferjani Sassi converted a penalty for Tunisia in the 35th minute to make things level. The Tottenham Hotspur forward then headed in the winner for England in the 91st minute of their Group G campaign opener on June 18.

And then there were flies.

After the match, Kane said the England players had to cope with flies in their mouths during the match.

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Even before the match, there was a lot of talk about how English players would be at a disadvantage as the temperatures at the Volgograd Arena would be much higher than in Repino, their training base.

“There were a lot more than we thought,” Kane said about the flies. “We got told before that there was going to be a lot of flies and when we went out for the warm-up there were more than we thought. We had a lot of bug spray on and that was important.”  

"We had some of them in our eyes and some of them in our mouth. It's just part of dealing with whatever comes your way and the team coped with it well."

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The English might have coped well with the flies like their captain insisted, but they seemed a little out of sorts in the second half of the match, especially when Tunisian players regrouped and tried to assert themselves.

Early English onslaught

England’s overwhelming start nearly blew Tunisia away. Barely three minutes into the game, Jordan Henderson sent a cross-field ball towards the right side of the Tunisian box for Dele Alli, whose square pass to Raheem Sterling was half cleared. The rebound fell to Jesse Lingard whose shot from 12 yards out was blocked by the outstretched left leg of Tunisian goalkeeper Mouez Hassen.

Four minutes later, Sterling dribbled past three defenders from the left before rolling the ball across the face of the goal to Lingard. But when the pass arrived, it somehow wrong-footed the teenager and bounced off his shins for a goal-kick.

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The English team was not to be denied for long and took the lead through Kane, who tapped it home in the 11th minute after the ball fell at his feet following a failed clearance from a corner. 

After an overwhelming 20 minutes of attacking football, England slowed the pace of the game and began to pass the ball around. It allowed Tunisia to reorganise, overcome their nerves and go after the ball.

They waited for England to make mistakes, and one from Kyle Walker proved costly. Battling for a cross, Walker put his arm on the face of Tunisia attacker Fakhreddine Ben Youssef who fell to the ground. A penalty was awarded and Sassi calmly slotted into the bottom-left corner, past a diving Jordan Pickford in the 35th minute.

The second-half was devoid of any dynamic moves from both the sides, who traded possession back and forth in the midfield.

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England coach Gareth Southgate rushed in Marcus Rashford, who replaced Sterling as they tried to step on the gas.

England, lacking creativity, kept testing Tunisia, who punched above their weight with a superb, organised defensive performance. England kept the pressure on them with set-pieces until the moment of surrender in the dying minutes. A corner from the right saw Harry Maguire flick towards the left, only for Kane to head it home at near post and deny Tunisia what would’ve been a fairly earned point from the campaign opener.

(With inputs from IANS)