New Delhi, July 2 -- ATLANTA - For sixty-eight minutes, England could not find what they needed. Brian Cipenga's seventh-minute finish had given DR Congo - in the first World Cup knockout match in their history - a lead that stretched, minute by minute, toward something historic and embarrassing. Jude Bellingham had been denied twice by Lionel Mpasi. The chances arrived. The goalkeeper made the saves. The scoreboard did not move.

Then Thomas Tuchel sent Anthony Gordon to warm up.

Gordon came on at halftime alongside Bukayo Saka, and the geometry of England's attack changed immediately. Where the first half had been narrow and predictable, the two substitutes gave width that DR Congo's disciplined low block had not been asked to contend ...