England’s manager has not had the easiest of weeks but he sent out an unbalanced side in Copenhagen and the end result was no real surpriseHow many holding midfielders is enough holding midfielders? If one holding midfielder is holding the space, can a second holding midfielder hold the same space if there is, technically, no space left to hold? And while we’re at it, how much more of this is there left?To their credit Gareth Southgate’s England team made an impressively committed attempt to answer these questions on a mild, crisp, occasionally hypnotic night in Copenhagen. This has not been an easy period for the national team. England came here depleted by injury, team-hotel-idiocy and an unavoidable lack of fitness....
Such a transgression in the era of Covid-19 will bring with it extra opprobrium but this is just young people doing what they have always doneBreaking news from Reykjavik: young people get bored and do silly things. Hold the front page, back page and indeed every page in between.The world may have shifted on its axis. Global sport may be menaced by the continuing vicissitudes of a viral bat-plague. But it seems some things remain reassuringly the same. Related: England's Foden and Greenwood sent home after breaking Covid-19 rules by inviting women to hotel room Related: Phil Foden struggles to find his rhythm in England's offbeat midfield | Barney Ronay Continue reading...
Montenegro and Serbia’s historic meeting, unhappy memories for England and the Republic of Ireland, and Georgi Petkov’s international return – at 42Twelve years after Montenegro achieved independence and 11 years after they were formally recognised by Fifa, they meet Serbia for the first time. The match is, according to goalkeeper Danijel Petkovic, the biggest in the nation’s history. After two games the teams are level on points at the top of Group C4, adding competitive edge to an already spicy encounter. Serbia are far from full strength: Crystal Palace’s Luka Milivojevic is one of several players to have dropped out of the squad since the World Cup after falling out with the manager, Mladen Krstajic, while the captain, Nemanja Matic,...