England Break Penalty Jinx And Twitter Goes Out of Control

This is the furthest the English team has progressed in any tournament since the David Beckham era.

The English team after their final penalty kick at the Spartak Stadium in Moscow. 

(Photo: AP)

In a World Cup of surprises, England provided the latest by finally winning a penalty shootout.

A long run of penalty misery on football's biggest stage ended with a 4-3 shootout victory over Colombia on Tuesday, sending England to the quarter finals for the first time in 12 years.

Eric Dier scored the decisive kick after a scrappy game ended in a 1-1 draw, denying Colombia a second consecutive trip to the quarterfinals.

Harry Kane gave England the lead with a penalty kick in the 57th minute. But as the game entered the third minute of stoppage time, Yerry Mina headed in an equalizer.

England will next play Sweden in the quarter finals on Saturday in Samara. It is the furthest England has progressed in any tournament since the David Beckham era, when a golden generation of players exited the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in the last eight.

Twitter exploded and English fans were all over the social media platform. One of the first tweets came from the Kensington Palace.

Like most of the matches in this World Cup, this too was an edge of the seat thriller and these tweets sum it up.

England trailed 3-2 in the penalty shootout after Jordan Henderson's shot was saved, but Mateus Uribe hit the bar and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford then saved Carlos Bacca's kick.

Pickford succeeded where Peter Shilton, David Seaman and Paul Robinson failed and Twitter couldn’t get enough of him.

This is the first time the English side won a penalty shootout in the World Cup finals. Earlier, the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cup campaigns ended in shootout losses. On top of that, England were knocked out of the 1996 European Championship semifinals and the quarterfinals in 2004 and 2012 on penalties. The country's only shootout success came earlier at Euro 96.

So as expected football fans couldn’t believe their eyes.

If it was jubilation for the ‘Three Lions’, it was heart break for the Colombians. When Juan Cuadrado blazed horribly over the bar with the goal gaping 10 minutes from time with Colombia's first chance of the match it looked all over for them.

(With inputs from AP)

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