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Harry Kane is a wonderful player, one of those for whom it is worth becoming fond of a sport.

But even he, and despite being surrounded by countless talented teenagers, could not dodge the curse that has haunted England since 1966. Kane took two penalties to tie.

The first marked it.

The second threw it into nothing.

And he collapsed into that white hole where Pearce

and

Waddle

felt so insignificant

in Italy 90. In a magnificent game where talent and effort cavorted on the night of Al Khor, France did not even have to tie themselves to

Mbappé

's boots .

The adolescent courage of

Tchouaméni

was enough , and the competitive experience of

Giroud

,

Griezmann

and

Lloris

to return to the World Cup semifinals, where they will meet Morocco in a very emotionally charged duel.

Both

Southgate

and

Deschamps

were always reproached for a tendency to short-cut talent, who knows if they were obsessed with their respective sapping times as footballers.

Both one and the other have had enough of piling up forwards this World Cup.

Southgate has always played two wingers as shooting guards for that one-man band called Harry Kane;

while Deschamps, who was world champion in Russia thanks in large part to the muscle of Pogba, Kanté and Matuidi, has lined up four attacking players in Qatar in unison, with Griezmann in charge of stretching a rope between the machine area and the front .

But one thing is the skin, beautiful and shiny, and quite another the spirit.

England attacked.

France fought back.

And Deschamps is so clear about that well-known path that, against England, he only had to replicate it.

Consistency would be the one that would bring him back to the semifinals of a World Cup in the hope that Mbappé, on the run, would hit Walker.

Although for this, before, Tchouaméni had to emerge, who at only 22 years old had to experience a couple of episodes that mark a career.

The conception of the opening goal had its crumb.

Upamecano, before being the one to clear the lines by taking the ball from the cave, had overwhelmed Saka in the recovery.

The Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio said nothing.

The move then made even more sense after Griezmann, Dembélé and an Mbappé intervened who took responsibility for the clearances to clear the mat for Tchouaméni.

The Real Madrid midfielder, who saw Bellingham on top of him, thought quickly.

So much so that he, standing still, and with the goal far away, released his leg so that the ball went out in flames towards the goal.

There will be those who think that Pickford, the English goalkeeper, reacted late.

But the force and precision with which Tchouaméni fired allowed little reply.

From there, France was able to play what they are best at: screwing their rival into frustration through a defensive exercise that is difficult to resolve.

Something Harry Kane refused to accept.

The Tottenham striker did everything he could to get the Three Lions back in the game.

First, he overwhelmed Upamecano with his body before Lloris, attentive, aborted the danger at his feet.

Right after, and again facing an Upamecano who was unable to control him, Kane was about to take a penalty.

The French center-back tripped him without qualms.

The referee closed his eyes and did not whistle any foul.

From the VAR they did not see it so clearly, although they ended up not opposing anything when they understood that the possible offense had been committed outside the area.

The one who offered the best resistance in France was their captain, a Lloris who raised his hands in his exciting duel against Kane, and who also excelled before a volley from Bellingham that served to open the curtain on the second act.

The Southgate footballers had come out emboldened, aware of the need to catch the tie as soon as possible.

And the one who caused it was another young value with a shiny present, a Saka who had already left the band to torture Rabiot from behind, and whom Tchouaméni could only stop by leaving his leg stuck in the ground as if it were a stake.

The penalty, of course, allowed Kane another duel in the sun against Lloris, his teammate at Tottenham.

This time he cheated on her.

The party then went into a frenzy.

Maguire and Saka fell short of glory.

But Griezmann saw what no one else saw, and Giroud gained space from Maguire to make it 1-2.

Until the time came when England remembered why theirs has more to do with curses than sanity.

Theo Hernández ran over Mount in the area, and the referee, who this time did go to VAR, awarded the penalty.

But Harry Kane, as the ball flew into the sky, realized that he is only a mortal.

And that there are traumas that have no remedy.

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