England avert disaster against DR Congo but they must be better in Mexico City | Jacob Steinberg

It was an almost Iceland in Atlanta but Thomas Tuchel will have to get it right from the start in the cauldron of Azteca

It was looking bleak out there. Ten years on, it was looking like Iceland all over again. The clock was ticking and the panic was rising. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), so impressive during that early surge at a disbelieving Atlanta Stadium, were starting to dream and England were about to become the punchline in one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history.

The obituaries were written, the calls for root-and-branch reform sure to follow. Nothing was going England’s way. Harry Kane, his hopes of winning the Ballon d’Or fading before his eyes, had a penalty claim waved away by the Jordanian referee. Lionel Mpasi, if not the best Lionel to play in a World Cup, was certainly looking a sure bet to win superior player of the match. The DRC goalkeeper was in astonishing form, making saves like Poland’s Jan Tomaszewski at Wembley in 1973, and with time running out during the second half it seemed an increasingly frantic England had run out of ideas against the dreaded low block.

Continue reading...