The writing was on the wall for England and their head coach, Gareth Southgate.

A tournament marked by underwhelming performances was set to end in Gelsenkirchen, with a limp showing against the 45th best team in the world.

But then, Jude Bellingham stirred. In the space of three minutes and 17 seconds, England — and Southgate — were saved.

Was this the moment that changed everything?

England will certainly hope so. They say greatness is forged from adversity, but England were not in difficult circumstances when Bellingham took flight deep into stoppage time.

They were desperate.

Trailing 1-0 courtesy of Ivan Schranz’s first-half strike for Slovakia, England were essentially out of time. Six minutes of stoppage time had been added to the end of the match and four and a half of those had already elapsed.

The ball had bounced out for a throw-in on the England right flank. Desperate times called for desperate measures. For much of this tournament, England have laboured on the ball, lacking a clear playing identity. But all of that talk was irrelevant now. They just needed to find something, somehow, from somewhere.

So they resort to a good, old-fashioned long throw. One footballer chucking the ball with all his strength into the box with his hands, hoping for the best.

Kyle Walker was England’s honorary Rory Delap — a former Ireland international who made his name with a bullet throw for Stoke City in the 2000s — although he lacked Delap’s legendary distance.

His throw into the box would only just reach the six-yard box. England had seven players waiting in the penalty area, hoping it would land kindly.

It is defender Marc Guehi who makes the all-important first contact. He is being marked tightly, but his header turns a sub-par long throw into a good one. The flick-on keeps the attack alive.

Waiting around the six-yard box is first Ivan Toney, who is shielding another Slovakian marker, Norbert Gyomber. In doing so, he leaves space.

Bellingham then drifts away from his marker, Denis Vavro, as if guided by the hands of fate.

He takes that open space and the ball arrives slightly behind him. No matter. There is no hesitation from Bellingham, no second-guessing. No doubt.

This is a player who rises to the occasion and has done so time and time again.

This season alone, Bellingham has been a difference maker in stoppage time six times, either securing a win or equalising late for England (now twice) or Real Madrid (four times). This includes a stoppage-time winner against Barcelona in El Clasico, as well as a stoppage-time winner against Union Berlin in the Champions League — a goal that saw him become the youngest player to score a 90th-minute winning goal for Real Madrid in that competition and the youngest Englishman of any side to do so.

Playing for England invites a torrent of pressure that can deprive even the best in the game of their senses, but not Bellingham. His instinct was to attempt one of the most difficult techniques in the game at the most crucial junction of England’s tournament.

Bellingham needed no invitation to join the pantheon of England greats — Hurst, Platt, Beckham, Owen — by scoring in iconic fashion at a major tournament.

He lifts into the air, twists his body and throws his right leg at the ball.

He connects perfectly and redirects the ball into the ground and beyond Martin Dubravka — who otherwise had enjoyed a quiet evening.

This was England’s first shot on target in the entire game.

But England were alive.

“In desperate times we need desperate measures and great players try outrageous things,” said The Athletic columnist and former England international Alan Shearer. “Most times they fail, but for great players they work sometimes. To try that in such a tense moment and not be worried about the outcome says how great he is. It may just be the spark (England need).”

Bellingham runs away and can be seen shouting “who else” to the fans and to the cameras.

After being embraced by his grateful team-mates, he performs his iconic celebration, with his arms outstretched, alongside the captain Harry Kane.

“One of the best (goals) in our country’s history I reckon,” declared Kane to FOX. “What a player. He works so hard for the team. There’s been a lot of talk about him over the past couple of days, but he stepped up in the big moment. That’s what we need and he did that today.”

Kane, though, would have more to say in this game. The job was not yet done.

The match would trundle on until the 97th minute and then, the clocks reset. We travel back in time to the 90th minute for the start of extra time. Thirty more minutes of action to see whether the two teams could be separated before the looming threat of penalties — England’s kryptonite.

But England retain the momentum following Bellingham’s moment of brilliance. And again, it is a set play that helps them on their way.

Straight away, substitute Ivan Toney wins a free kick on the right flank and Cole Palmer takes it. The clock has reached 90 minutes and 45 seconds.

But Dubravka is commanding and punches the ball clear.

It falls to Eberechi Eze on the edge of the box, who tries to volley for goal but gets it wrong, so wrong that it inadvertently keeps the attack alive. His shot bounces into the ground and towards Ivan Toney, who had momentarily slipped but regained his balance. The Brentford striker had a hand in the first goal, but now he will take centre stage.

Toney heads the ball first time across goal, generating enough power to lift the ball over five players and leave goalkeeper Dubravka backpedalling. It is an inch-perfect header.

It is also a present for captain Kane. He heads the ball into the net as the clock hits 90 minutes and 51 seconds.

From despair at a dismal performance to relief and elation. England kept their Euro 2024 hopes alive with a defining spell lasting three minutes and 17 seconds. An equaliser in the 95th minute and a winner in the 91st. It might look odd on scoreboards, but no England fan will care.

Looming post-mortems were put on ice. Southgate’s side laboured throughout their encounter with Slovakia and they will know that they simply have to improve if they are to go further in this tournament. The talent within their squad demands performances of better quality and relying on moments of inspiration will surely not be enough to beat tougher opposition.

But for the faults of this encounter, it will still be a game that evokes fond memories. This was also the match where Bellingham etched his name into the collective memory. In doing so, he gave his coach a stay of execution. But who knows, this may also be the match that sees England turn a corner.

“I had belief right the way through that we would get that goal,” said Southgate. “I didn’t think it would come that late, but I wasn’t ready to go home yet and the players clearly felt the same.”

GO DEEPER

What England can expect from Switzerland – their four tactical traits analysed

(Top photo: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)

Four of the five Canadian world junior players charged with sexual assault stemming from a June 2018 incident in London, Ont., have been cut loose by their NHL teams after not being tendered a qualifying offer before Sunday’s deadline.

Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, Dillon Dubé of the Calgary Flames, and Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils are all now unrestricted free agents. They had each been on paid leave from their teams since late January, when they were ordered to surrender to London Police Service to face sexual assault charges.

A trial date has yet to be set. It was up to each team to decide if they wanted to issue a qualifying offer by Sunday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline to retain the NHL rights of those players, and the Flyers, Flames and Devils all decided against it.

Had they done so, and the offers been accepted (which they almost certainly would have been), the players would have continued to be paid while remaining on leave as the legal process played out through what could end up being all of next season.

There are currently no restrictions around their ability to sign with another team right away, deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed to The Athletic on Sunday night. But it will likely be difficult for any of them to do so, given all of the uncertainty around their situations.

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association had discussions in recent weeks about potentially freezing the status of the players until a trial was held, according to league sources familiar with those talks, but couldn’t reach an agreement on how to make that work.

It’s possible that Hart, Dubé, McLeod and Foote explore opportunities to continue their careers in Europe — as Alex Formenton, the fifth player charged alongside them, did the last two seasons in Switzerland with HC Ambrì-Piotta.

Formenton’s NHL rights will remain with the Ottawa Senators through July 1, 2027, because he received a qualifying offer that he didn’t accept following the 2021-22 NHL season and was then moved to their reserve list.

The five players are facing charges for a June 2018 incident inside a room at the Delta London Armouries Hotel following a Hockey Canada Gala at which the world junior team was celebrated for its gold-medal win.

Two counts of sexual assault were brought against McLeod, and one each for Dubé, Foote, Formenton and Hart.

Required reading

(Photo: Andy Devlin / Getty Images)

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SPIELBERG, Austria — Over the past three seasons, the combination of Max Verstappen and the Red Bull car has proven so potent that the rest of the Formula One field has only seriously challenged him on rare occasions.

And over the past few races, that has changed.

Lando Norris snared victory in Miami, closed late on Verstappen at Imola, and could have won in Canada and Spain, only for small errors to cost him. At no point had he truly raced Verstappen. Their friendship, sharing flights and padel courts, has stayed strong.

But on Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix, the inevitable happened: Verstappen and Norris raced for real, raced hard, and it ended in a collision that will test the bonds between them.

“It’s just a bit reckless,” Norris said in the media pen after the race, downbeat from having a shot at victory snatched away. “It seemed like (it was) a little bit desperate from his side.”

How Red Bull put Verstappen in trouble

It was a crash that shouldn’t have been likely in the first place. Verstappen was in total control right up to his pit stop on Lap 51 of 71. His only slight bugbears were the traffic, the lack of blue flags at times as he lapped cars, and one slower pit stop.

But a second, terribly slow pit stop from Red Bull, the slickest and quickest crew in the F1 grid, put Verstappen in trouble. A stop that usually takes around two seconds took 6.5 seconds due to an issue getting the left-rear wheel nut on, wiping away the buffer to Norris.

One battle, two different viewpoints 🗣️🗣️#F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/5aUbIoTVG4

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2024

Verstappen was calm in the media pen after the race, seemingly more disappointed in the execution by Red Bull than the clash itself. He called it an “awful” race and said the team “did a lot of things wrong today,” citing the strategy that left him battling traffic along with the “disaster” pit stops. “You give free lap time, six seconds over those two pit stops, then, of course, it’s a race again,” Verstappen said. “That’s why we put ourselves in that position.”

The added complication for Verstappen was that he had a lightly used set of medium tires instead of the fresh set Norris could run, giving the McLaren the grip advantage. As they weaved through traffic, Norris could easily sit within DRS range of Verstappen and start plotting where to make his move.

Aggression meets aggression

“When I need to, and the time comes to race him, I 100 percent will.”

Norris’s promise in an interview with The Athletic at Suzuka would always be tested at some point. And he quickly made good on it with his lunges on Verstappen.

On Lap 59, Norris went for his first attempt to overtake Verstappen at the top of the hill into Turn 3, a wide corner with plenty of room for a send up the inside. Norris briefly got ahead, only to run off the track and have Verstappen sweep back ahead on the run to Turn 4. Verstappen immediately alerted his engineer to the off-track move, noting that Norris had already been shown a black and white flag, a last warning for exceeding track limits. As a fourth strike, this would trigger a five-second penalty, only issued after Norris was out of the race.

Norris claimed he’d been pushed off by Verstappen and continued to attack undeterred. Verstappen complained on the radio that Norris was “dive-bombing,” and in the media pen, he described the moves as “just sending it up late and hoping the other guy stays out of it and you make the corner, which wasn’t the case.”

Norris kept the pressure on while the stewards investigated the track limits breach, going for another move at the same corner four laps later. This time, the Red Bull went off the track. He stayed ahead, prompting a radio complaint from Norris, who had already called out Verstappen for illegally moving under braking (moving laterally while slowing down). Verstappen said he was forced off. Classic gamesmanship from both.

And then, on Lap 64, the clash happened. Verstappen covered the inside and squeezed Norris, his car drifting slightly to the left. The side-on collision left both with damage and a long crawl back to the pits. Verstappen recovered to finish fifth, while Norris was forced to retire. Mercedes’ George Russell scooped up the win, followed by Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz.

Hard racing or over the limit?

Before his current dominant run, Verstappen made his name in F1 for a hard, no-holds-barred approach to wheel-to-wheel racing. When a driver fights him, there’s no surprise in what they get in return.

“I expect a tough battle against Max, I know what to expect,” Norris said. “I expect aggression and pushing the limits and that kind of thing. But all three times, he’s doing stuff that can easily cause an incident.” He added he was “in a way not surprised” by the clash but felt disappointed not to get “tough, fair, respectful, on-the-edge racing” in the battle for the win. “There’s times where I think he goes a little bit too far,” Norris added.

Verstappen denied crossing a line, claiming he hadn’t moved under braking in their battle. He noted Norris’s “dive-bombs” and called the stewards’ 10-second time penalty — they said Verstappen was “predominantly at fault” due to his shift to the left — “a bit severe.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner described it as a racing incident. “Max is a hard racer, and they know that,” he said.

Norris’ challenge has revived Verstappen’s dormant penchant for hard racing. (James Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Verstappen is a hard racer, yes. That’s partly why this was always going to happen. He hasn’t been pushed like this since the peak of his fight against Hamilton in 2021. Now Norris and McLaren have a package capable of not just challenging Verstappen but beating him, prompting a return of these more aggressive on-track tactics, which are more likely to result in such incidents.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella felt the stewards should have shown Verstappen the black and white warning flag for moving under braking, as it would have made the Red Bull driver “much more prudent in closing the door on Lando.”

“It’s a great battle, but there’s no need to act so desperately,” Stella said. “There’s no need to think that the world is going to finish if the overtaking maneuver by the car behind is going to be completed.”

Was it inevitable? Horner used that word twice post-race. “You could see this building perhaps for a couple of races,” he said. “At some point, there was going to be something close between the two of them.”

Verstappen didn’t want to think that way. “It’s never how I thought about stuff,” he said. “But close battles, sometimes these things happen which you never want to happen.”

Will Norris and Verstappen clear the air?

The Austria clash is a flash point in the competitive and personal relationship between Norris and Verstappen, who look a step ahead of the rest of the pack in F1 right now, as seen so plainly in Sunday’s race.

The pair have shared many cool-down rooms and press conferences in the last 12 months, regularly joking and bantering. Now, there’s a tension that showed little sign of cooling in the heat of the immediate aftermath of the collision. Norris wasn’t interested in being the one to extend an olive branch or look to clear the air. “It’s not for me to say,” he said. “It’s for him to say.”

Verstappen said there’d be a chance for them to talk, but it was “not the right moment,” and it was “better to cool down.” He said they had already not planned to travel back together to Monaco, as they’ve done after other races this season.

Verstappen said he hoped it wouldn’t damage their relationship. “We’re all racing drivers, of course you don’t want to crash into each other,” he said. “When you’re fighting for the lead, it’s always tough battles. It happened today. It’s always a shame. I’m annoyed, he’s annoyed. I think that’s fair.”

Verstappen is right that there will be a right moment for reconciliation. You can already predict the shared Instagram post of the two together smiling, a sign to the world that everything is OK. Friends again.

Yet as long as the margins between Norris and Verstappen remain so close on the track and as we see such intense battles more often, their dynamic will continue to be tested.

Which, after so long without that kind of competitive edge, is a thrilling prospect for F1.

(Lead image: Rudy Carezzevoli, ERWIN SCHERIAU/APA/AFP via Getty Images)