Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford offer savage rebuke to gutless abusers

For Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford, the last acquaintance with a major tournament brought the anguish of missed penalties and the horrors of racist abuse. Fast-forward 16 months and the same two young men, sacrificial lambs on that wretched Wembley night, learnt what it meant to savour the deepest contentment on such a stage. With three goals between them, they embodied England’s purging of all the torment that had gone before.

Just 19 when he saw his fateful penalty saved, wishing that the ground would swallow him whole, Saka did not disguise how deeply the sensation had affected him – or how emphatically he rebounded here. “It’s quite a while ago now,” he said, understandably distracted by the magnitude of scoring twice on his World Cup debut. “But it’s a moment that will live with me forever. I am so blessed to have coaching staff at England and Arsenal who put their arms around me and helped me to go again.”

For some players, such a scalding baptism could signify an ending. Saka, by contrast, used his ordeal to fuel a renewal. So dramatically did he make his presence felt against Iran, with two deliciously clinical strikes, that in one mighty bound the 21-year-old leapt past the total World Cup goal haul of Wayne Rooney, the top scorer in England’s history. Only one of Rooney’s 53 goals came at the grandest dance, in a 2-1 defeat by Uruguay. On this evidence, Saka is unlikely to find his career defined by such frustrations.

Given licence to roam on the right, he affirmed his quality as a remarkably decisive player. It is a priceless quality to inject into an England attack that has, in recent months, been distinguished largely by its toothlessness. First, Saka waited for Harry Maguire’s header to drop to him before applying a brutal finish into the roof of the net with a lash of his left boot. Then he conjured a second piece of exquisite timing, crowded out by Iranian defenders but still finding the slippery footwork to score. These were the touches of a virtuoso. Tantalisingly, some seasoned observers of Arsenal felt that Saka, a catalyst in the club’s surge to the Premier League lead, was not even at his best.

All his life, Saka, a straight-A student at Greenford High School in west London, has tended to simplify his pursuit of excellence. “Heavenly Father,” this devout Pentecostal Christian would recite in daily prayer growing up, “you have given this new day to me. Help me to make it one that pleases you by doing my best in everything. Amen.” It is an endearing insight into an athlete of precocious perfectionism. Gareth Southgate, an admirer of Saka’s character, had little hesitation in starting him at the expense of Phil Foden. Now we understand why.

It is far too early to be drawing comparisons with 1966, but one is worth noting. With his star turn for England, Saka became the youngest player since Franz Beckenbauer 56 years ago to score two or more goals in his first World Cup game. After his substitution with 20 minutes left, preserving him for greater tests ahead, he could be glimpsed slumped on his chair in the dugout, his eyes glazed. It was not the look of a man distressed, but overwhelmed.

Cast your mind back 499 days to recall the spectacle of Saka, haunted and solitary, being consoled by Southgate on the Wembley turf. The England manager recognised the then-teenager needed protecting, but still the faceless online bigotry arrived in torrents. Within 48 hours, a giant banner depicting Saka, Rashford and Jadon Sancho, the third luckless penalty-taker, had been draped across the Waterloo departures hall, with the message: “Our three Lions.”

It was a stirring gesture of solidarity. But the drip of poisonous abuse was so persistent, one of the culprits was eventually sentenced to 10 weeks in prison. Saka developed his own way of coping, waiting four days before addressing the heartbreak of the penalty miss publicly. He had known immediately how vicious the pile-on would be, yet resolved not to let it engulf him. “I was hurting so much and felt that I had let my England family down, but I can promise you this,” he wrote, “I will not let the moment or the negativity break me.”

Count his latest performance as a fulfilment of that prophecy. Saka is not one who extols the virtues of resilience or graft casually. At school, he had such unusually acute focus that he combined his football feats with successes in tennis and dance, all while setting a junior long jump record.

Rashford, likewise, can boast credentials beyond his craft, both as a children’s author and as orchestrator of a free school meals campaign so successful that it earned him an MBE.

The accusation, at the time of his lobbying, was that Rashford was letting his attentions drift from football. For both Manchester United and England, he has since given the lie to that judgment. At 25, he is leaner, sharper and more dangerous a striker than we have seen before, fully justifying his World Cup call-up. His goal here, England’s fifth, reflected supreme composure, arriving within 49 seconds of his arrival from the bench. Coupled with Saka’s contributions, it was a display that served as a savage rebuke to their gutless abusers. It was also a stirring reminder that even the most grievous setbacks need not be terminal.