The Poland striker has the most thankless job in international football but earned redemption after creating the equaliserThe second most thankless job in international football is trying to steer England through a mediocre qualifying group. Draws are a humiliation, defeats a disgrace. Wins are either “dreary” or “routine”. If you won narrowly, you were dour and unimpressive; if you won easily, then you can’t read too much into it anyway because of the weakness of the opposition. In a way this is one of those rare scenarios in which neither the process nor the outcome really matters. You are dullards by default; reassessments take place every two years. Next.So it was here for England, who in succumbing to an injury-time...
The teenage midfielder shone on an evening altogether more relaxed than the team’s previous appearance at WembleyAndorra at home on a sleepy Sunday evening in north-west London: it is not exactly an occasion that screams of flares up backsides, ticketless fans storming the turnstiles and beer bottles flying through the air on Wembley Way.Unsurprisingly nobody tried to force their way in to watch England’s second string cruise past the world’s 156th best team in a match devoid of any real competitive edge. Instead the mood was light and relaxed for England’s first game at Wembley since the disorder that marred the Euro 2020 final against Italy, almost as if those who were present were the people who had missed out...
Questions remain about how well he uses his ability but £100m Manchester City signing played his part in comfortable victoryMessiahs in football tend to exist more in the mind than on the pitch. The clamour for Jack Grealish to start for England may have been answered but the pattern of the game was very familiar; he did not elevate them inexplicably to something transcendent. This was classic England under Gareth Southgate, holding an opponent at arm’s length before finally opening them up. Thrilling it was not, but it was effective.Grealish was instrumental in the opening goal, surging down the left after Declan Rice had won possession, before releasing the overlapping Mason Mount to cross for Raheem Sterling to cuff into...
Manchester City forward was the one figure in this England team running with real purpose – but his game is still a little misunderstoodWith 58 minutes gone at Wembley, the score 1-0, and all sense of attacking pep drained from England’s fuel cells, an important life lesson presented itself.Just as you can win a tournament game on the small details, by turning this game of rich human variables into a series of managed collisions, so you can also ship a goal from nowhere via a shanked pass from a high‑grade central defender prone to moments of high‑grade dither. Related: Maguire's blast bails out Stones as England scrape nervy win over Poland Related: England 2-1 Poland: Player ratings for Gareth Southgate's...
Playing in a pre-qualifying league with fellow minnows would help them to improve and also benefit more established teamsBy no means the first football grandee to assert that playing international cannon fodder such as San Marino ought to be beneath the England team, Gary Lineker was the most recent and high profile. During the Wembley rout on Thursday, the man who served his country with so much distinction mused aloud on social media, tweeting: “Surely we’ve reached the stage where the lowest ranked nations should play among themselves to qualify for the right to play at this level. It’s become absurd.”While one suspects a younger Lineker would have happily looked past the absurdity of such a mismatch and seen instead...