Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez did their cases no harm in Portugal and Harry Winks strengthened his in absentiaSunday afternoon at the Estádio D Afonso Henriques stadium and Gareth Southgate found himself once again fielding questions over the level of perceived progress in the year since the World Cup finals. England’s Nations League campaign had delivered another semi-final defeat but a first third-place finish in 51 years, no goals mustered from open play but a second successive penalty shootout success. “But the biggest sign of progress was the mentality of everyone after the loss to the Netherlands,” the manager said. “Once we’d calmed all the emotion, the theories as to why we’d lost, the drive was there. We weren’t satisfied...
Club and country must ease the burden on the striker who was rushed back from injury for the Champions League final and then unnecessarily taken to PortugalWith one minute gone in England’s Nations League play-off game in Guimarães, Harry Kane did something brilliant. Jordan Pickford launched a hard, flat pass from his own six-yard box. Kane saw it coming, crept back along the line of the centre circle, then executed a kind of cushioned capoeira‑roundhouse layoff into the path of Jesse Lingard.Lingard waited a beat, scanning his options. Kane made the choice for him, surging on ahead, pointing where he wanted the ball, then dinking a brilliantly conceived back-spun chip over Switzerland’s Yann Sommer and on to the crossbar. Related:...
Sterling, in his 58th game of the season, and teammates look jaded against Swiss – they should have been on the beachOn a soporific summer’s day in Guimarães one word reverberated in the mind like a mantra. Why? Why were England playing in one of the more pointless matches in international football history, when they should have been on the beach? Why were they also forced to play extra-time in a third-place playoff rather than going straight to penalties? And why – given all that puff and manpower – did Uefa not even deign them with a medal ceremony? Instead England’s bronze medals were given to them in a bag in their changing room afterwards.That tells you a lot about...
Ronald Koeman’s Dutch side offer up a rousing performance but Stones fluffs his lines in Nations League semi-finalThere was a moment of double-take deep into the second half of a steamy, slightly wild Nations League semi-final at the Estádio Afonso Henriques. Frenkie De Jong took the ball in his own penalty area facing the Dutch goal and straight away heard the thundering hooves of Fabian Delph at his back, the white shirts sensing a turnover.De Jong did something surprising. He slowed to a walk, floated left, half-turned, then flipped back the other way. Without looking up, but sure in his movements, he fizzed a hard, flat pass out 40 yards to a free orange shirt, the weight of the day,...
Jordan Henderson is thriving in his more advanced role under Jürgen Klopp after years spent filling in where requiredOne of the hallmarks of great drama is when a previously unheralded character turns out to have a significant impact on the denouement that, in hindsight, seems inevitable (Gendry? Samwell Tarly, perhaps? Or maybe one of the surviving direwolves?). Jordan Henderson may be Liverpool captain but, a fortnight ago, who really thought he might have a major say in the playing out of the title race – and that it would be positive?Liverpool weren’t nervous exactly but five minutes into the second half against Chelsea on Sunday, they were perhaps just at the stage of thinking they needed a goal soon or...