England’s lack of momentum and clarity eased by return of cavalry | David Hytner


Gareth Southgate has been spinning plates in the warm-ups but Chelsea and Manchester City reinforcements are a boost

Tyrone Mings’s forearm smash on the Austria striker Sasa Kalajdzic. Jordan Henderson’s taking of a penalty away from the centre-forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin against Romania, and missing it. Any number of defensive slips, individually or collectively.

The thought has occurred all too frequently during England’s Euro 2020 warm-up games: thank goodness it was not the finals. Can you imagine if these kind of errors, some rooted in the all-consuming desire to impress, in players essentially losing their composure, had happened, say, against Croatia in the opening group game on Sunday?

Related: Harry Kane feels England in ‘better place’ than at 2018 World Cup

Related: Ben White called into England’s Euro 2020 squad in place of Alexander-Arnold

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