The switch against Albania feels significant, as the flexible formation fits England’s players, especially the full-backsPlayers may still be suffering their post-Euro hangovers, the last of the broken glass may only just have been swept up from Wembley Way, but the World Cup is already only a year and a week away. For England the lessons of the Euros are still being assessed and assimilated and yet, already, FA officials are travelling out to Qatar to scope out training bases. The final run-in has already begun.Suddenly a 5-0 win over a desperately disappointing Albania – how on earth had that side, even allowing for defensive injuries, beaten Hungary home and away? – is not just a jolly night out, a...
The England manager picked a brave starting XI against Hungary – their failure to win the game should not tempt him to revert to his more risk-averse nature“Failure is a figment of your imagination.” Kobe Bryant had a pretty good line on the importance of trial and error, on failure as the father of success, on disaster on Monday as a signpost to triumph on Friday. To be fair this is perhaps a little easier to embrace as an approach to life when you happen, by an accident of fate, to be Kobe Bryant. Or indeed when failure doesn’t involve a migraine-inducing attempt to break down B-list international opponents at a lukewarm Wembley, while a group of budget fascists riot...
‘Order was restored,’ said the police, but only because they were forced to retreat during England’s World Cup qualifierWe came for the football. What we got, with the anthems still fresh, was 10 minutes of violent culture clash in the Wembley seats. This was a tableau of viciousness played out via the fists of Hungary’s travelling ultras and what looked, at times, like a lone Metropolitan police officer waving his (massively outgunned) baton of liberal justice.Ultra-nationalist football thugs versus the Met. And it’s live! It was a dismal, toxic, at times surreal night at Wembley Stadium. At 7.45pm England’s players kicked off this Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier to the usual hopeful, tinny cheers. By 7.48pm, the first fists were...
The pair have been in contrasting club form but made the difference for Gareth Southgate on a niggly night in AndorraStart the bus. Download the boarding passes. Count the pointless yellow cards (two of them, for the record). Mission just about accomplished. England’s footballers may take some happy memories from this 5-0 defeat of Andorra.The Pyrenees are beautifully rugged. They make a fine brandy. The players deserve credit for keeping their cool and getting the job done. But it seems fair to say this is not a game that will live on fondly in the highlights reel, a night of snark, squabbles and the odd heavy tackle on a rough-looking rubber pitch. Continue reading...
Harry Kane remains a predator and could feast against Andorra and Hungary as he reels in Wayne Rooney’s achievementAs England’s players wander out at the Estadi Nacional on Saturday night, frown down at the plastic and rubber-crumb pitch, and steel themselves for 90 minutes of heavily weighted professional sport, there will be an urge to take out the low-key international week bingo card.We know how these occasions play out. Echoey, somnolent national anthems. An early reference from the TV commentator to the opposition centre-forward’s day job as an abattoir superintendent. Gareth Southgate frowning on his touchline, just about lending a due sense of gravity to a competitive engagement with the 156th-ranked team in the world (Andorra are three spots below...