World Cup

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Attendance: 44,190

World Cup | Round of 16

Jul 3, 2018 at 7pm UK

Colombia
1-1
England

Mina (90+3')

FT
(aet)

Kane (57' pen.)

England win 4-3 on penalties

Juan Pablo Angel: 'England have not been tested so far at the World Cup'

By Matthew Jones, Reporter | 02 July 2018

Former Colombia international Juan Pablo Angel is not convinced that England have been truly tested in the group stages of the World Cup.

Former Colombia international Juan Pablo Angel has insisted that England have not been fully tested so far at the World Cup.

England scraped past Tunisia in their opening game as Harry Kane scored a brace, before thrashing Panama 6-1 and losing 1-0 to Belgium last Thursday.

The Three Lions will face Colombia in the round of 16 on Tuesday evening, but Angel is not convinced that his country's upcoming opponents have been put to the test in the group stages.

"For the English national team, there has always been a huge amount of pressure to perform in these big tournaments and in the last few years they haven't been able to live up to the expectations," he told reporters.

"Having said that, I don't think the pressure on these players is as much as it was on the so-called 'golden generation'. Not having and not feeling that pressure I think has helped a lot.

"Gareth [Southgate] has managed to bring a young group of players and in a way they have been performing with a lot of freedom. They have the top scorer of the tournament, they've been playing some good football. But they haven't really been with a team that has tested the squad as much as they'd like to."

The winner of Tuesday's fixture will play either Sweden or Switzerland in the quarter-finals of the tournament in Russia.