"WORLD BEATERS" Daily Express

Kosovo Team

Safely through to the finals, England still needed to do more work to become one of the top seeded sides in the tournament draw, and this game in Kosovo gave them a sterner test than the last match. After England were given a rapturous welcome from the crowd, due to Britain’s help during the brutal conflict with Serbia a few years ago, both teams started brightly. It was a very open game but was also a little scrappy at times, with both teams often careless with their passing.

The first-half was poor with Kosovo having good periods of pressure without testing debutant goalkeeper Nick Pope.  England seem to have developed an aversion to corners recently and one or two caused problems in getting the ball away.  However, there was a very gentle start to the match as both teams felt each other out.  An early injury to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looked ominously bad, but thankfully, after all his injury woes recently, he was able to continue.  In the 7th minute we had our first sight of an attack as a cross came in from the left and Atdhe Nuhiu rose unchallenged, but he failed to get any purchase on his header allowing Pope to gather.  It was alarming that there was little by way of a challenge from Tyrone Mings though.

It is rare to see either Raheem Sterling or Trent Alexander-Arnold give the ball away cheaply, but both were guilty of such careless behaviour in the early part of the match.  It wasn’t until 15 minutes had passed that England created a semblance of a chance.  It was a good one too, as Harry Maguire sent Ben Chilwell away down the left and his run and cross found Harry Kane.  The striker laid the ball off for Sterling to fire in a good shot which was beaten away by goalkeeper, Arijanet Muric at full stretch.  The difficult bobbly pitch was making passing tricky and there was little by way of flowing football.  On 24 minutes Milot Rashica tested Pope from 30 yards, but the keeper had an easy save and then on the half-hour Callum Hudson-Odoi popped up for the first time with an effort on goal.  Sterling had won the ball before Hudson-Odoi fired in a shot which Muric again saved.  Two minutes later though, England made the breakthrough, and with a lovely goal too.

Kane received the ball from Declan Rice and passed inside to Oxlade-Chamberlain.  Harry Winks spotted an opening and Oxlade-Chamberlain fed through a glorious pass for Winks to run onto and slot the ball home with aplomb.  It was a lovely calm finish from a player that doesn’t score too often, and he was obviously delighted.  If anything though, Kosovo just about edged the first-half, but they carried very little threat up front.

Again, it was a quiet start to the second-half, although on 51 minutes Amir Rramani put his head in the way of a shot going wide and almost succeeded in deflecting it on target, but not quite.  Shortly afterwards Rramani had another chance at the far post as England’s concentration waivered yet again at the back.  Luckily the ball flew wide but this was the home side’s best spell, without causing England any real difficulty.  Too many overhit crosses and poor passes by England did not impress and the whole game became a bit scrappy to say the least.  A strong run by the ineffective Hudson-Odoi ended with a shot over the bar and that was his last contribution as Marcus Rashford came on as substitute with an hour gone.

Rashford immediately livened the play up and when he and Chilwell combined for the full-back to shoot at goal, the ball was deflected to Sterling on the right, who then pulled the ball back to Kane and he rattled the near post with his shot.  A break down the right by Florent Hadergjonaj after Rice gave the ball away came to nothing and then Gareth Southgate brought on Mason Mount for Oxlade-Chamberlain.  Kosovo were still in this match and they were battling well at times.  They won several free-kicks and on 76 minutes one attack looked dangerous, especially as Pope slipped at an inopportune moment.  Luckily the shot went wide.

Three minutes later England settled the result.  A lovely change of pace saw Sterling break down the right past two defenders and cross.  The ball was deflected up into the air and as it dropped there was Kane, keeping his eye on the ball before thumping it home from close range.  Kane was more and more involved at this stage and two more chances fell his way, with the second following a fine move.  On 83 minutes the lively Rashford joined the party with a sublime finish.  Sterling’s finely weighted pass was brilliant but the finish was sheer class as Rashford stroked the ball home superbly.

Southgate then brought on another debutant in Oluwafikayomi Tomori for Alexander-Arnold, and I must confess I had never heard of Tomori before, apparently he is a Chelsea player, and he was thrilled to make his debut.  He was quickly in the action and also had the satisfaction of seeing his Chelsea teammate Mount score his first England goal.  It came in added time, and was down to an horrendous blunder by Ibrahim Dresevic, who slipped on the edge of the box.  Mount wasn’t going to look this gift horse in the mouth and he tucked it away with relish!

And that was the end of the action, maybe a slightly flattering scoreline in the end, but you cannot take away the fact that England are scoring goals so freely at the moment, and long may it continue.  It is probably agreed now that England have seven places in the side sewn up, and it is just Maguire’s partner in defence, and the midfield, that needs to be worked out as to what is the best balanced trio.  When that happens we will have one hell of a team.
 

Source Notes