X

World Cup memes: England roars that 'it's coming home'

Did the Three Lions finally break their World Cup curse? Are we cursing them again just by thinking that?

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
See full bio
Gael Cooper
2 min read

Tuesday was a crazy day in World Cup play, with England-Colombia going to penalty kicks, and the Sweden-Switzerland match being decided when a Swiss player scored into his own net.

But that England-Colombia game! The Three Lions of England finally ended what some were calling their penalty shootout curse. England's Eric Dier scored the winning penalty kick in a 4-3 shootout, sending the team on to play Sweden in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

"ENG winning a penalty shoot-out? It's uncharted territory in a #WorldCup. How are you feeling, #ThreeLions fans?" tweeted BBC 5 Live Sport.

One Twitter user suggested "Facebook needs to add something so England fans can declare themselves safe from a cardiac arrest."

The England team's official Twitter account even apologized for the stress of the penalty kicks. "Sorry we put you through that – but what a way to do it," the tweet read.

England fans still have high hopes that, in the words of the 1996 anthem Three Lions, the World Cup trophy will be coming home to the land of the game's birth. One fan captioned images of Doctor Strange from Avengers: Infinity War telling the Avengers he saw 14,000,605 futures, with Iron Man asking, "In how many of those is football coming home?" (The answer: "All of them.")

Even other countries congratulated the Three Lions.

Although some weren't having it.

And there was some high praise for Colombia's goalkeeper, David Ospina, who also plays for English club Arsenal. 

"Tough luck Ospina," wrote Twitter user Ian Eccles. "You've enjoyed a solid #Col #WorldCup campaign. Should be proud of your fighting effort as should the whole squad."

Switzerland's Manuel Akanji knows how Ospina feels. The Swiss player deflected a ball off his foot and into his own goal, and Sweden advanced while the Swiss went home.

"It was very unfortunate that Manuel Akanji's World Cup ended in the way it did," tweeted the Scouted Football account. "He was Switzerland's best performer over their four games and quite comfortably one of the standout centre-backs at the tournament."

The World Cup field is down to just eight teams from the original 32, so stay tuned for the quarterfinals, which begin Friday.