Sol Campbell, one of the Invincibles of that Arsenal unit looking just as big and intimidating to this day, placed both the hands on his head, almost exasperating at the mention of Kyle Walker’s quote that wrote headlines for the England-France World Cup quarter-final clash: “The game is not England vs Mbappe, it’s England vs France”.
“Of course, you’ve got to say that out loud, but internally…” Campbell, both eyebrows raised with the smile giving away the unfinished sentence, said of that statement. “To be honest, if I was Mbappe, that’s fuelling me even more. You just don’t need to be putting more logs into the fire.”
There appears to be no dousing the Frenchman’s fire in Qatar over the last few weeks, his trail of sheer speed too hot for teams to handle. So, even if we were to go by the Walker talk, how big is the five-goal Mbappe factor in the “England vs France” contest? Pretty big, reckoned the former England centre back Campbell, which only balloons into a greater force—and worry for England—when Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud get added to the equation.
“It depends on how Gareth (Southgate, England manager) goes—does he add another player at the back or keeps it as it is. If he keeps it, he’s going to really struggle in containing Mbappe, and then Dembele on the other side and Giroud upfront,” Campbell, who has been in the city since the start of the World Cup last month as part of Viacom18’s expert panel, said.
They key battle for Campbell is how many bodies England can get behind when the French wheels turn on.
“How many players they can bring back just to mark three guys. There will have to moments when they’ll have to defend in numbers, and other times when they’ll have to go one-on-one,” he said.
One little thing with that one-on-one tactic (for which Walker would be Mbappe’s man). “You go one-on-one with Mbappe, you’re basically hoping he has a bad game!” Campbell said.
“So, the key battle is the defence: how much do England want the midfield and the wings coming back to protect them, and when can they release them and take a gamble and go one-on-one,” the burly defender added.
Campbell termed this much-anticipated last-eight clash a “proper, proper test”, the “sternest” yet for the Three Lions and one that has “probably come a little bit early”.
“This game will expose if they (England players) really are at the top of their game. If they are, they have a good chance of winning it.”
Campbell, who spent five years at Arsenal and represented the national team from 1996 to 2007, felt England also have enough quality in their attack, singling out Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham while hoping that Harry Kane “can bring it on”. He said the goalless draw with USA was a “real wake-up call”, but that Southgate deserved credit for a largely trouble-less passage into the quarter-finals after a string of poor results this year.
“For coming into the finals without a win in their last five games, he’s done a really good job of turning it around and making sure everyone turns up. Obviously, they’ve had easy games to get them going, and the real test was America and that wasn’t the best,” he said of Southgate who took over in 2016. “His record speaks for itself—he’s been the best since the World Cup win (by England in 1966). Just needs to go a step further.”
That’s where England under Southgate have faltered notwithstanding the promise and talent of this current bunch. They exited in the semi-final stage at the 2018 World Cup and lost the final of the Euros last year.
“It’s down to the manager to keep them positive and say, ‘hey, we’ve come so close’,” Campbell said. “This current lot is brimming with talent going forward. We have lots of players who can bring in different dimensions to the attacking play. It’s whether we can transfer that to get over the line and win it.”
