The moment Ling's finish rolled across the line, the England supporters inside the Stadio Olimpico released everything they had been holding back.
Flags snapped above the stands as the noise crashed down toward the pitch, and for several seconds the atmosphere felt almost absurdly loud for a stadium hundreds of miles from Wembley.
Ukraine gathered near their penalty area.
Matviyenko was still recovering from the desperate attempt to change direction during Ling's run, while Zabarnyi stood beside him with both hands on his hips.
Neither defender had actually done anything particularly foolish.
They had been caught by a player who had escaped two midfielders near halfway, changed tempo twice against the first center-back, then forced the last defender into reacting to movement that seemed to change with every touch.
That did not make the experience any less unpleasant.
Bushchan was already urging everyone to forget it.
One goal was not elimination.
There were still several minutes before halftime and another forty-five after that.
Shevchenko's gestures from the technical area carried the same message.
Ukraine had spent most of the half playing well enough to justify confidence.
They had controlled long stretches of possession, gradually pushed England deeper, and begun finding better positions around the penalty area immediately before Ling's goal.
There was no reason to throw all of that away now.
What changed was the urgency.
Ukraine restarted more aggressively, and almost immediately Karavaev began advancing higher from the right while Zinchenko pushed closer to the final third.
Yarmolenko moved inside more often, looking for shooting positions on his left foot, while Yaremchuk became increasingly physical with Maguire and Stones.
England answered the change without backing away from the contest.
Rice challenged harder for second balls.
Henderson stayed closer to Zinchenko.
Shaw became more conservative whenever Karavaev advanced, while Ling dropped enough to prevent England's left side from becoming overloaded.
The match became noticeably more physical.
A hard collision between Maguire and Yaremchuk brought an angry reaction from both sets of players.
Another between Rice and Sydorchuk followed shortly afterward.
The referee intervened quickly before the mood could deteriorate further.
Ling watched the temperature of the match rising and immediately pressed both palms downward toward the teammates nearest him.
There was no reason for England to get dragged into an exchange of fouls now that they were ahead.
Ukraine needed chaos but England did not.
Southgate was making exactly the same gesture from the touchline.
Control the emotion.
Control the ball when possible.
Make Ukraine spend energy chasing the match!
...
Yarmolenko began assuming more responsibility as halftime approached.
That also meant he started keeping the ball for longer.
Twice he received near the right corner of England's penalty area and tried to work his way onto his left foot, but Shaw denied the first attempt and Rice crowded the second before a clean shooting lane appeared.
Ukraine's pressure remained real.
Its efficiency began falling.
That was precisely what England wanted.
The more players Shevchenko pushed forward, the more Ling and Sterling forced the Ukrainian defenders to think about what might happen if possession changed.
Ukraine could not commit everyone.
Not after the goal they had just conceded.
The final minutes disappeared beneath a series of interrupted attacks before the referee finally brought the first half to an end.
England 1–0 Ukraine.
...
Ling lifted the bottom of his shirt and wiped the sweat from his face as he walked toward the tunnel.
The difference between this match and Germany was obvious.
England had spent long periods without the ball.
Ukraine were finding cleaner combinations through midfield than Southgate would have liked.
And yet England still possessed the lead.
That was the value of the tactical structure.
They did not need to dominate every statistic.
They needed to control the spaces Ukraine could use and remain dangerous enough on the counter that Shevchenko could never attack without restraint.
Ling could provide much of that threat.
He could not defend the entire lead by himself.
Inside the tunnel, Kane gathered several players briefly and reminded them that the next fifteen minutes would probably decide the rhythm of the second half.
Ukraine would come out aggressively because they could not afford to let England settle into possession with the score in their favor.
Ling added only one thing.
"Make them keep worrying about what's behind them. If they push, we run."
There was no need for more.
Everyone understood.
...
Inside the dressing room, Southgate kept the tactical discussion concise.
England were not being asked to retreat another ten yards.
That was the first point.
Yaremchuk was too dangerous in the air to spend an entire half allowing Ukraine's full-backs and midfielders to deliver uncontested crosses.
If England sank onto the edge of their own penalty area, sooner or later one second ball would fall badly.
The front line therefore had to remain connected to the rest of the team.
Kane would continue occupying the center-backs.
Sterling needed to threaten the space behind Mykolenko.
Ling's position would depend on Ukraine's right side.
When Karavaev advanced, Ling had to help Shaw enough to prevent a two-on-one; when England recovered possession, he needed to release himself immediately and become the counterattacking outlet again.
Southgate pointed toward the tactical board.
"Don't defend the scoreboard. Defend the match."
That was the distinction.
England were not forty-five minutes from the semifinal because they had decided to stop playing football.
They were forty-five minutes from the semifinal because they had done enough to earn a lead.
Now they needed to continue earning it.
...
The second half began at full intensity, with Ukraine immediately pushing forward as though the interval had only made them more determined to force their way back into the match.
"Ukraine come flying forward!" Drury called almost immediately. "Whatever Shevchenko said during the interval, there is no caution in it!"
Zinchenko drove through midfield before releasing Mykolenko down the left, and the full-back wasted no time delivering an early cross into the penalty area.
Maguire rose to head it clear, but Ukraine recovered the second ball almost immediately through Shaparenko, who worked it back toward Yarmolenko.
The winger shaped to shoot through the traffic, only for Henderson to throw himself across the lane and block the attempt before it could trouble Pickford.
England recovered possession and tried to break straight away, with Ling sprinting beyond halfway as Ukraine scrambled to reorganize.
Rather than allow the counterattack to develop, one of the Ukrainian players stopped it with a foul and accepted the resulting yellow card.
Barely five minutes later, Rice went into the referee's book as well after arriving late when Zinchenko escaped the first challenge, and by the end of the opening ten minutes of the second half, three players had already been booked without the intensity showing any sign of dropping.
"This quarterfinal has changed character completely!" Beglin said. "The first half was tactical and patient. Now both teams are playing as though every loose ball might decide who goes to the semifinal."
Drury hardly waited for him to finish.
"And with every minute that passes, England can see Wembley getting closer."
Ukraine continued pushing forward, but England were increasingly dangerous whenever they survived the first wave of pressure and found room to counter.
Yarmolenko eventually created another opening near the right side of the penalty area and drove a powerful effort through a crowd of players, only for Maguire to step into its path and block with his body.
The rebound escaped toward midfield, where Ling collected it before two Ukrainian players could close him down properly. He rolled away from the first challenge, accelerated beyond the second, and carried the ball rapidly toward the edge of the penalty area as Ukraine's defensive line retreated.
Zabarnyi moved across to confront him, but Ling shifted the ball outside the center-back and created enough space to shoot from a difficult angle.
Bushchan reacted sharply, stretching across goal and pushing the effort beyond the far post.
"LING AGAIN!" Drury shouted. "Ukraine are pouring forward, and every time England escape, he is waiting to turn the entire match around!"
Beglin sounded just as animated when the replay appeared.
"That is why Ukraine cannot simply throw everyone into England's box. Ling receives thirty-five yards from his own goal, and six or seven seconds later Bushchan is making a save at the other end."
England failed to make anything of the resulting corner, but the attack had served as another clear warning.
Ukraine could continue committing players forward in search of an equalizer, yet every additional body they sent into England's half created more space for Ling and the rest of England's attack to exploit if possession changed hands.
...
As the match moved beyond the opening exchanges of the second half, it settled into a punishing rhythm in which neither side could hold control for very long.
Ukraine would push England backward, England would absorb the pressure and attempt to counter, and Ukraine would then recover quickly enough to begin another attack before the game could properly settle.
By the hour mark, however, the physical cost of that constant movement was becoming increasingly obvious.
Ukraine had gone through extra time against Sweden only a few days earlier, while England were still carrying the effects of their own exhausting knockout match against Germany, and the accumulated workload was beginning to show in both teams.
Every sprint now seemed to require slightly more effort than the one before it.
First touches became a little heavier, passes occasionally arrived half a yard behind their intended target, and challenges grew increasingly desperate because tired players no longer trusted themselves to recover if an opponent escaped the first attempt.
Southgate had already begun looking toward his bench, and Shevchenko was doing the same on the opposite touchline.
Fresh legs would become increasingly important as the match wore on, but choosing the right moment to introduce them would matter just as much.