Jude Bellingham excels in parallel World Cup but cannot win trophy alone | Barney Ronay

Up against Norway’s heart and skill and Florida’s heat, talisman got England through – but there is much to fix

Jude against the sun. For much of this game there was a feeling of three separate entities struggling to assert their will in the heavy air of Miami Gardens. First, Norway, in their first World Cup quarter-final, who played with heart, skill and patience, and were by any Jude-free metric probably the better team.

Alongside this, forcing itself centre stage, was the July Florida heat, the kind of air that congeals around you like an invisible white sauce, that makes your vision blur and your brain sag, and to which England seemed uniquely vulnerable.

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