Austria’s gritty bunch of footballers provided a bitty challenge for England in a friendly which turned into a draining occasion
There was one luminous moment on an otherwise frantic, and frankly quite weird night for England’s footballers at the Riverside Stadium. With 57 minutes gone an odd-job front-line produced a fine surging move to create a first England goal for Bukayo Saka.
Up to that point their opponents had been mean, bruising and, let’s face it, quite annoying. Austria’s footballers have one of the great sporting nicknames. Das Team is both accurate and appropriately free of frills. Das Team is a safe, functional thing. Das Team runs and kicks and presses together. Das Team also has not won a game at a major tournament since 1990.
Related: England player ratings from the friendly win over Austria
Related: Saka fires England to win over Austria marred by Alexander-Arnold injury
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