An England fan has opened up to BBC Breakfast about the devastating moment he witnessed England’s loss against Argentina.
Andy and his wife Kirsty were in the stadium (Image: BBC)
An England fan has revealed what the atmosphere in the stadium was like on Wednesday evening.
The nation has been left heartbroken after World Cup dreams were shattered in a dramatic semi-final game.
Despite Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute goal, Argentina fought back with two goals in the final minutes, taking Lionel Messi to his third World Cup final.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Thursday, July 16, an England fan spoke to presenters Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt about witnessing the devastating loss in the stadium.
Andy Payne travelled across the United States to watch every match with his wife Kirsty, and admitted she was left “destroyed”.
He said: “This is my third World Cup semi-final, and Kirsty’s second, and to say the least, we’re used to this disappointment. We came so close today, I thought we were going to do it.
“We’ve had a fantastic trip, England have played brilliantly well. Thomas Tuchel might get a lot of criticism for today but everything done so far has been great.
“We just couldn’t do it today, every single time England just don’t quite get there but that’s life.”
He went on: “As always with England, there’s tension. Frankly, what Tuchel has done is put his best team out, the best players he had who weren’t injured of the 11 went out. And this is the first time he didn’t change things early, it was late, it was getting on.
“When we saw the goal, my view and other people in the ground were the same, was this is a goal that is decided on one goal. We thought we’ve got one goal, we might get two, we’ve got them, we’ve done this.
“And unfortunately, I think Tuchel looked at his team and went, ‘well how am I going to improve this team?’ because the players that weren’t on the field either weren’t the best players or were injured.”
Talking about the atmosphere in Atlanta Stadium, Andy agreed it was “the most extraordinary place to be”.
He went on: “For me, it was the best atmosphere bar one. The Azteca where we beat Mexico, but listen, I’ve seen England play Argentina now in 1986… I was there, we were outnumbered that day. 1998, I was there, we were hugely outnumbered by Argentinians.
“Today we were hugely outnumbered, the atmosphere was unbelievable. Every single England fan who was there was behind the team.
“None of the England fans who were in that ground boo’ed the players. We were disappointed, of course, we lost the game from 1-nil up with six, seven minutes to play.
“We fell short, and that’s England really, isn’t it? But all the people around me were as disappointed as I was, but we’ve had a good tournament and the team spirit was unbelievable.
“And we gave those boys a good send-off at the end. They came to us and they saluted us and we saluted them.
“It’s not a matter of life or death, it’s a game of football.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.