Following a tournament of highs and lows, there is one 2026 World Cup moment which still bugs Adrian Durham.Despite the disappointment of exiting in the semi-final, there were many reasons for England to look back fondly in North America.England have reached the semi-finals in four of the last five major tournaments but continually come up shortThe Three Lions had two Golden Boot contenders during the tournament in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.Both players were England’s heroes on multiple occasions, with the Bayern Munich striker securing a brace against DR Congo preventing a humiliating round of 32 exit, before Bellingham’s double against Norway in the quarter-final.Additionally, a night for the history books occurred at the Azteca Stadium.It was probably England’s greatest victory since their 1966 World Cup win which involved altitude of 7000ft, hostility from the Mexican fans, the game delayed by storms, and an early second-half red card for Jarell Quansah.They went on to qualify for the semi-finals against Argentina following triumphs over Mexico and Norway.During the high-intensity match, many fans and pundits celebrated Djed Spence‘s tackle on Giuliano Simeone which forced the ball out for a corner kick as England were 1-0 up.However, Durham believes the plaudits for the challenge allows the players to have low expectations and the incident may have caused the Three Lions to lose focus and ultimately exit the tournament to their biggest rivals after two late goals.He said: “What have we learnt from our failure in Atlanta, are you going to hold on and think about it forever or are you going to let it go and move on. I’ve personally sat back and rewatched it and realised England has a huge problem.“They keep having these big moments in tournaments like losing a penalty shootout or like the victory in the Azteca Stadium, it was brilliant and these are memorable things that happen that are landmark moments that come but they only become properly meaningful when you go on to win a tournament.“You can look back and see it as a building block when you lift your World Cup or European trophy, and we haven’t done that yet.Spence made several key tackles during the semi-final against Argentina“One of those ‘so-called’ landmark moments was in that semi-final [against Argentina] and it annoys me when I think about it now and I’ve been stewing about it for some time, I just can’t shake it, it’s still annoying me now. Djed Spence’s tackle against Argentina, it really wasn’t that special.“It’s a great example of how England fans and the media hype something up way too much. It’s the kind of thing that annoys the rest of the world , they’re looking at it like he’s only ran up and tackled him.“Do you remember when Scotland celebrated a goal-kick at 0-0 in the Euros and we all slaughtered them for it, well this is the same thing. In fact, it’s worse because we didn’t even get a goal kick out of it.“Here’s what happened, Simeone miscontrolled the ball and Spence kicked it out for a corner… that’s what happened. It’s no Bobby Moore on Pele, it’s no Gordon Banks moment, it’s no Paul Gascoigne goal against Scotland.“It’s just an opponent not controlling a football which runs into Spence’s path. Then the England testosterone happens as it goes for a coroner, they all lose their minds and focus and England go on to lose the match. Spence has been called up for the England squad for the November international break, with it being the first time since the World CupGetty“There’s a huge overreaction to the moment on the pitch, they believe that England have won the semi-final. I’ve asked people what time they believe that tackle was between, they said the 70th-75th minute… It was 58 minutes.“It was so early in the game, there was more than half an hour to go and they think they’ve won the semi-final because Spence kicked a ball out for a corner.“That tackle isn’t really a tackle, he booted a loose ball out and it’s done more harm than good, it was massively overrated.”Spence deserved the creditManager Thomas Tuchel‘s squad selection in May raised a few eyebrows when he left out players who have featured regularly in tournament football for England – such as Harry Maguire.However, the decision to include players like Spence – playing for relegation-threatened Tottenham – proved to be beneficial after he received high praise for his solid defensive displays.Angelina Kelly added: “I guess part of the moment was not expecting anything from Spence at the World Cup.“He was the last to be picked from the squad and everyone thought Lewis Hall would be the one picked, so I think the moment was just surprising. So, maybe we should just give Spence his flowers?”