It is difficult to know where to start with this match report after England's narrow win against one of the so-called International minnows, Andorra. Credit to the home side though as they stuck to their guns, defended in depth and blocked shots when needed and relied on their goalkeeper Iker Alvarez to mop up anything that England did manage to get through. From an England point of view, it was pretty dire to be honest, and it seemed that too many players did not have the appetite for this game.

The match started brightly with Jude Bellingham firing in a shot in the very first minute, which was easily saved by Alvarez (or Iker) as he had on the back of his shirt. From then on there was the predictable possession dominance by England but without the necessary killer instinct needed in this sort of game. On ten minutes Chuk Madueke was brought down in the box by Biel Borra, which looked like a clear penalty but nothing was given by the Croatian referee. Three minutes later, Andorra failed to clear a corner from Cole Palmer properly and the ball fell to Madueke again, who this time forced a full-length save from Iker.

On 20 minutes Curtis Jones made a good run down the right before pulling the ball back, but Harry Kane couldn't quite rap his foot around the ball and the shot went wide. This led to a long spell of meaningless possession from England, doing their usual predictable side to side play which never seems to draw defences out from their defensive positions. The Andorra side were not averse to some rough challenges, largely unpunished, but they easily were containing their visitors, and to some extent out-muscling England.. Some careless passing too, was irritating to the England fans with most of the players being guilty. With 35 minutes gone Bellingham tried again from long range after more good play from Madueke, but it was another easy save for Iker. Morgan Rogers tried a run at the defence and almost succeeded before his final shot was blocked.

As the end of the half approached England were not showing enough craft or guile needed to break down a stubborn defence, although going forward, Andorra showed no sign of a goal or even a shot at goal. Right on the whistle, Madueke was again the instigator of England's best opening and his chip was nodded goalwards by Bellingham, but once more Iker was in the way.

Surely it had to be better from England after the break, and five minutes after the restart, finally, a positive moment from England, and it brought them a goal. A lovely through pass from Jones found Kane who immediately fired in a shot. Iker saved but the ball squirted out to Madueke on the left running in, who then fired it back across goal and there was Kane following up to stab home at full stretch.

It seemed as though England had been told to play the ball more into the space behind the defenders and they went close again shortly afterwards with a similar pass. One irritating factor that really annoys me, as a former goalkeeper myself, is this awful habit of goalkeepers making an easy catch and then going down cuddling the ball for a few minutes! Iker did it every time he caught the ball and I just hope that the new 8 second rule is applied to all levels of football from next season.

Madueke was still the main threat from England and he was running at people throughout, causing defensive desperation. At the other end Andorra finally had a shot after Ricardo Fernandez skipped round Dan Burn before firing a shot way over the top of Jordan Pickford's goal. Just after the hour mark, Kane tried to chip the keeper, who saved comfortably before collapsing to the floor cuddling the ball again! Thomas Tuchel then decided on some changes as Cole and Jordan Henderson were replaced by Trent Alexander-Arnold and Eberechi Eze to try and add some pep into the proceedings. Unfortunately it made little difference to the play although England had little difficulty winning corners. Another through Ball found Kane but his pull back was behind his attacking colleagues so the chance went begging.

The only moment of alarm for England came in the 76th minute when their defence was exposed following a breakaway from Andorra, but substitute Jesus Rubio saw his shot well blocked by Ezri Konsa. After Declan Rice and Anthony Gordon were sent on for Jones and Rogers, England won a free-kick in an almost identical spot to the one that Reece James scored from in England's previous game against Latvia. This time, however, James made a complete mess of his kick and it sailed high over the crossbar. Some you win, some you lose. Not sure why, but one minute into added time the manager brought off Bellingham, replacing him with Morgan Gibbs-White.

Then, in the very last action of the match Gordon and Madueke had the chance to seal the result, but both missed the target with their efforts and that sort of summed up England's overall performance. It would have been nice if Madueke had taken that chance because he was the one shining light in this England performance. In the end the team managed to gain the three points, which was the object of the exercise, but the only real winners were all the holidays that were beckoning for the players after a long, hard season. Oh dear, just remembered, there is another game on Tuesday. I can't remember any new England manager having such an easy first few fixtures in their reign, but Tuchel has not inspired anyone so far with his team's tactics and performances. Things need to change before we play some of the big boys that's for sure.
 

Source Notes