It was not exactly a display that will have England’s World Cup rivals quaking in their boots, but the final 20 minutes of Monday’s thrilling 3-3 UEFA Nations League draw with Germany at least muted some of the criticism aimed at manager Gareth Southgate.
With 71 minutes on the clock England were trailing 2-0 and appeared to be signing off for the tournament which starts in Qatar in November mired in a mounting crisis of confidence.
They were heading for a sixth successive competitive match without a win — their worst run for more than 100 years — or even a goal from open play in that dire sequence, but suddenly everything clicked into place with goals from Luke Shaw, substitute Mason Mount and a penalty by Harry Kane set to pluck an unlikely win from the jaws of defeat.
Photo: AFP
Kai Havertz’s second goal for Germany in the 87th minute put something of a dampener on the Wembley party, but Southgate still took plenty of positives before he selects his World Cup squad, not least an impressive display by midfielder Jude Bellingham.
There are still plenty of questions to answer — namely defender Harry Maguire’s struggles and England’s tendency to play with the handbrake on — but Southgate said that he would not be deviating from the trusted formula that took his side to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and the Euro 2020 final.
“We should have been ahead with the chances we created, and then suddenly it’s 2-0 and we are in a difficult moment,” Southgate, who has come under fire with England relegated from Nations League Group A3 with three points, told reporters.
“But the crowd stayed with us and didn’t get on our backs and then the roof came off when we scored, and we all remembered what it feels like when a goal goes in,” he said. “So there is a lot to take from it, but then we got the punch on the nose at the end which is how it’s going for us.”
Southgate said that the players had organized a meeting among themselves last week to talk over where things have been going wrong of late, saying it was a sign of leadership.
“The best football teams need outstanding leaders from the coaching staff, but they also need a real core of players that drive things,” he said, adding that for many of his squad their bad run was something they had never experienced with England. “We’re all learning together and in these moments we have to stick to what we’re doing. We weren’t going to rip things up tonight and make eight changes and start throwing everything up in the air because we believe in what we’re doing.”
While England’s poor run has tempered optimism ahead of the World Cup, Southgate said they were not the only nation struggling for form in the buildup, with Germany having won only once in their past seven matches.
“Everybody’s got the same challenge and it’s a really strange period because so many teams are a little bit up in the air really,” the England coach said.
Ahead of the match, scores of suspected German fans attacked customers at a London pub, injuring several people, three seriously, police said.
About 100 males, many wearing masks, approached the pub in Wembley and assaulted customers in the beer garden, police said.
“While a number of the group were wearing England hats and scarves, it is believed they were German ‘fans,’” a police statement said. “The group entered the beer garden of the pub and began assaulting customers, most of whom were in the area to attend the England vs Germany match. Punches and projectiles including traffic cones were thrown. Officers responded and the group fled.”
The police said “a number of people” sustained head and facial injuries, with three suffering serious leg, wrist and thumb injuries.
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