"QUEASY DOES IT" Daily Mirror

England Team

Kosovo Team

Wow, what a match this turned out to be! It has been a number of years since England took a competitive match away from Wembley, but the south coast venue of St Mary’s in Southampton, provided a real thriller. It could certainly be compared to Clint Eastwood’s famous western, ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!’ as the England fans, once again, were taken on a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Let’s take ‘The Ugly’ first. Less than a minute into the match Michael Keane passed the ball square, forgetting for a moment he was playing in a white shirt, and gave it straight to the blue shirted Vedat Muriqi. The Kosovan quickly laid the ball off to Valon Berisha, who jubilantly accepted the gift and fired past Jordan Pickford. The Kosova supporters in the crowd went wild with delight, not quite believing what they had seen....like the rest of us. After that, and for the next 44 minutes, we moved on to ‘The Good’.

The game was fast and furious with both sides trying to press and close people down.  This was all very well but at both ends it left gaps at the back.  England started to exploit those gaps with some super football.  The front players, especially Raheem Sterling, were quick to break and the Kosovo defenders were as exposed as England’s were.  In the 8th minute England won a corner on the right.  Ross Barkley took it, deep to the far side of the area.  In came Keane, to atone for his earlier blemish, to head the ball back across goal.  Sterling was there and jumped high to head a fine equaliser from close range.

England had a lot of the possession over the next ten minutes but had to be alert to the threat of Kosovo, who did play some excellent football when in possession.  However, it was England that had now gained the initiative and on 19 minutes they took the lead with an excellent goal.  This time Sterling turned provider.  Receiving possession just inside the Kosovo half, he turned the visiting captain, Amir Rrahmani, and set off on a scintillating sprint.  When he reached the area he laid the ball to his left where Harry Kane does what he does best, drilling a left-foot shot under the goalkeeper to give his side the lead.  It was a fabulous break and a fine goal.

Both teams were looking to break at speed, as a result, the game was fast and open, and another England goal followed after 38 minutes.  There was a challenge on the right touchline by Trent Alexander-Arnold and the ball broke free for Jadon Sancho to spring down the right.  The Kosovo manager was going ballistic screaming for a foul by Alexander-Arnold, but England played on with Keane and Kane combining to send Sancho away.  When Sancho reached the byeline he centred hard and low, and the unfortunate Mergim Vojvoda could not get out of the way and diverted the ball into his own net.  It was comical to see the ‘alleged’ victim of Alexander-Arnold’s ’foul’ then jump up immediately to vociferously lead the protests against the goal, before then going down again on realising he was supposed to be injured.  The Swiss Coach was cautioned for his protests.

That wasn’t the end of ‘The Good’ as before the break England scored two more goals as Kosovo gave up on their defending.  In the 44th minute Sterling was again at the heart of the attack, laying the ball off to Sancho coming in from the right.  The youngster took one touch and fired his shot home, giving the goalkeeper no chance.  It was Sancho’s first goal for his country, but that was quickly followed by another a minute later.  This time Sterling completed a hat-trick of assists by sprinting down the left, after a brilliant touch first took him past a defender.  As he reached the six-yard box he sort of tried to chip the keeper, scuffed it a little, and in so doing set up Sancho for an easy tap-in from a yard out.  What an amazing half it had been and if anyone had believed that England would be 5-1 up at the break after going a goal down in less than minute, they would have been lying.

At the start of the second-half Alexander-Arnold found himself in the Kosovo penalty area and he managed to fire in a left-foot shot which goalkeeper Arjanet Muric patted away to save.  England then reverted back to ‘The Ugly’ again.  This time it was Declan Rice who gave the ball away badly in midfield.  Muriqi again gained possession and centred deep where Berisha was standing unmarked and free.  The cross had cleared Jordan Henderson’s head and as the England player tried to challenge again, Berisha coolly side-stepped the Liverpool man before planting a fine shot past Pickford.  It was a really well-taken goal, but oh, such woeful defending again.  Surely there was no way back for Kosovo?  Yes, because I haven’t mentioned ’The Bad’ yet.

To be fair the visitors had no intentions of giving up and they were playing some fine football at times, and had England genuinely rattled.  Six minutes later Muriqi tussled with Harry Maguire, and as the England defender went down his foot caught Muriqi who threw himself headlong as though he had been shot!  The referee gave a penalty, which it probably was, but was there any need for such a theatrical performance by Muriqi.  The big man took the spot-kick himself and although Pickford got both hands to the ball he couldn’t keep it out.  Now it was everything to play for.  From that point on we saw a little of Good, Bad and Ugly from England, but in the main they still had the better of things.  On 62 minutes England were awarded a penalty.  Barkley, who improved as the game moved on, went on a powerful run forward and as he reached the area he drew a challenge from Rrahmani and went down.  Penalty, said the referee.  Now, all the talk since the previous Saturday had been in the fact that maybe Harry Kane was the best penalty taker in the world.  He was so clinical.  Not this time, sadly, as Muric dived to his right to save, what was, a much weaker penalty than we are used to seeing from Kane.  It just proves he is human I guess.

England still had the bulk of possession and when Kane fed Sterling in the 72nd minute it looked odds on a sixth goal.  This time though Muric spread himself at Sterling’s feet and just managed to deflect the ball wide with his shins.  Two minutes later, after more end to end football, another Sterling effort was deflected agonisingly wide by a defender’s desperate lunge.  The game continued in its breathless manner with both sides stretching the other’s defences.  Barkley and Sancho went off, replaced by Mason Mount and Marcus Rashford, and immediately the two new arrivals combined for Rashford’s shot to be saved well by the goalkeeper.  As if not to be outdone Kosovo came straight back when Bersanr Celina did brilliantly to cut in and fire a curler inches wide of Pickford’s far post.

That turned out to be the last action in a terrific and entertaining game where The Good finally triumphed over The Bad and The Ugly.  All credit to Kosovo who really tested England to the full.  But also credit to England, especially their attack.
         

Source Notes