Bellingham’s magic moment saves the English.

In an ad for adidas before the tournament, Jude Bellingham was ready to make himself out to be England’s savior. After a long wait, he lived up to that promise on Sunday in Gelsenkirchen.

To be honest, the Real Madrid player had a pretty bad game against Slovakia for about 94 minutes. He kept going down dҽad-end paths, took too long to pass the ball, and was often very angry at referee Umut Meler. The way he played that night showed how bad England’s season was as a whole.

After Ivan Schranz scored in the 25th minute, Gareth Southgate’s team was about to lose to Slovakia in the round of 16, which would have been embarrassing. But Bellingham reacted quickly to a Marc Guéhi flick-on and scored a stunning overhead k𝔦ck to pull them back from the brink and tie the game 1-1 with seconds left in stoppage time.

After Bellingham’s goal in the fifth minute of extra time, Harry Kane scored the game-winning shot in the first minute of extra time, giving England a 2-1 win. Cole Palmer, Eberechi Eze, and Ivan Toney all came off the bench to help him.

Up until now, England’s front four of Bellingham, Kane, Bukayo Saka, and Phil Foden have not been very good. However, Bellingham’s moment of brilliance is exactly why many people picked them as pre-tournament favorites: Southgate has so many players who can make or break games.

Bellingham seemed to mouth the words “Who else?” as he celebrated his equalizer. It’s like he knew the whole time.

England needs to step up as a team for their knockout match against Switzerland on Saturday, but Bellingham needs to be in great shape for them to have any chance of going on to the Euro 2024 final.