The Qatar World Cup quarter-finals between England and France sparked a lot of contrasting emotions, both during the game itself and well after full-time. It was a pretty dramatic quarter-final that had wonder goals, penalty controversies and much more in its entirety.
In the end, England went down to a 2-1 loss despite having dominated major parts of the game. Harry Kane could not convert a second penalty in the late stages, which could’ve maybe forced extra time and helped the Three Lions go out as the winners on another day.
As it is with the England national team and their players, there were a lot of over-the-top reactions to their eliminations.
Many are calling for manager Gareth Southgate to be sacked, and some have criticized Harry Kane for being a big-game failure. The players of colour in the England team have also not been spared.
Bukayo Saka was racially abused after the game, despite being among their best players. Marcus Rashford, who only played for the last five or so minutes, was not spared either and was a victim of racial abuse once again.
To his credit, Rashford has taken the criticism and abuse admirably well. He hasn’t paid too much attention to it and posted an admirable statement on his Instagram in the wake of his side’s elimination from the World Cup.
Reflecting on the competition, he wrote: “The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions, each and every one of our team gave everything we had to be ready for what was thrown at us, we got close, but not close enough.
“I’ll make a promise that we will come again! Thank you for the unconditional support we have received throughout the tournament, it hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Rashford’s compassionate post earned a lot of praise from fellow Manchester United teammates and many recognizable names from the football fraternity.
Kylian Mbappe, who played a part in eliminating England from the competition, also found the post to be really heart-warming. He reacted with a heart emoji on the post, a classy response for his fellow athlete.
The United winger saw this and gave a class reply in the comments, writing: “Good luck with the rest of the tournament brother! Go smash it king.” This brilliant little interaction between the two superb forwards has won the hearts of the entire football fraternity and gotten everyone talking about it.
Mbappe and Rashford have met each other many times, both on the off the pitch. Marcus was responsible for knocking Mbappe’s PSG side out of the Champions League with a remarkable late winner for United in the 2018/19 Round of 16 tie.
Kylian got his revenge on them in the 2020/21 season, playing a major role in eliminating Rashford’s side from the Champions League group stages.
But in between all the heated matches they’ve been a part of, the two players seem to have the utmost respect and love for each other. They’re both young, charitable figures who have voiced their admiration for one another on social media quite a few times in the last few years.
The Mbappe-Rashford link-up might be a heartwarming one, but it has left fans of Man United and PSG wondering which individual exactly is acting as an ‘agent’ to convince the other to join him at his club.
