"STONES ATONES"  Daily Express

England Team

Poland Team

    Match Report by Mike Payne

The punishing schedule for England continued with this match at Wembley against Poland, their third game in a week.  Gareth Southgate made just one change from the win in Albania, bringing in Ben Chilwell for Luke Shaw at left-back.

The game started with England trying to retain possession, but with Poland hunting them down at every opportunity.  England kept their cool though, and with Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips and Mason Mount taking a firm grip on midfield, the dominance of the home team grew.  It was soon obvious that Poland had earmarked Raheem Sterling for particular attention, realising that he posed a large threat down the left.  Each time the winger received the ball he was closed down by two, three and even four defenders.

The first real chance came on seven minutes when a fine pass from Mount sent Chilwell away down the left and as he reached the bye-line he pulled the ball back, but just a little too high for the inrushing Phil Foden.  His header went over but it was also a case of the wrong man on the end of the cross.  Poland then broke quickly but that attack was quickly snuffed out by the England defenders.  John Stones and Harry Maguire looked in good form and Kyle Walker and Chilwell also gave good protection to Nick Pope.

On ten minutes, Foden cut inside from the right, and had his ankle clipped to bring him down in the box.  It looked a penalty but the referee was having none of it.  Meanwhile, Sterling was fouled again as defenders swooped on him, and as the minutes ticked by the Manchester City winger was just starting to have a little more joy.  One run into the area saw him put a good ball inside, but a defender cleared the danger away.  In fact, in the first 15 minutes Poland dealt efficiently with the crosses coming in from England.

In the 18th minute England took the lead.  For the first time in the match, Sterling had some space and set off on a run at the Polish defence.  As he reached the bye-line a challenge came in from Michal Helik and clattered Sterling to the ground.  This time the referee did give the penalty and up stepped Harry Kane to smash the ball down the middle with goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny diving to his right. It was Kane’s 34th England goal and his tenth penalty, which is a new England record.

Poland came back for a short while and Maguire was harshly penalised as he gave away a free-kick.  That was not the first poor decision given by the Dutch referee, who made some irritating stoppages against both sides at times.

Two chances then came for Sterling in two minutes of action as first he was crowded out after bursting into the box onto a great pass from Mount.  At the other end Pope was a little lucky with a mishit clearance which was thankfully intercepted by the busy Foden, and from the following breakaway, Sterling dribbled into the box again and almost scored the goal of the season.  He beat several players before he was just edged out from making the final shot.  What a goal that might have been!

On 31 minutes lovely interplay by Foden and Mount set up Kane for a shot.  He hit the target but Szcesny dived to his right to touch the ball away from danger.  That was a good save.  England were stretching the Poland defenders at every opportunity, and with Rice, Phillips and Mount combining well, it looked only a matter of time before England sealed the win.  One turn and pass by Phillips showed the Leeds United player was growing into this team with increasing confidence.  Rice made many great interceptions, taking the ball from Polish players with ease at times with his clever reading of the play.

In the 43rd minute another run by Sterling was stopped only by desperate defending and every time Sterling took possession and ran at Poland he caused danger.  The only annoying feature of England’s first-half performance was in just two shots on target and one was the penalty goal. Other than that it was a good half.

Poland made some changes in the second-half and certainly upped their game.  Suddenly the little nicks gaining possession by Rice were not coming off, and Mount’s runs were stifled as was the workrate of Phillips. Poland really harried and pushed England in this half, although it must be said that Pope was rarely called into action.

Mount was fouled in one attack to earn a free-kick in a good position, but that was wasted by Foden.  Then a cross was cut out by Pope as Poland hit back and the visitors next attack was cleared by Maguire.  He and Stones were playing well, as were the full-backs, but the increasing dominance of Poland was a worry.  Poland made more changes from their bench, but nothing was forthcoming from Southgate regarding substitutions, which was rather surprising.  The England players were showing visible signs of fatigue as the action became more frenetic.

One of the England manager’s ploys is to build out from the back, but several times over this and the previous two games the pfaffing around at the back has almost brought disaster.  In the 58th minute of this game England’s luck ran out.  Pope passed out to Stones and the obvious thing would have been to pass back to the keeper.  But Stones took a touch too many, was closed down by Jakub Moder, the ball ran away but came back to Moder who finished with aplomb.  Stones held his hand up to apologise to his teammates, but the damage was done.  There is no need to criticise Stones too much as he and Maguire had played well, and he plays for Manchester City.  They play that game too, and quite a few times players, not just Stones, have been caught out.  It’s the nature of the beast.

For a while Poland were in the ascendency, whilst a few England players were obviously stunned.  However, to their credit they gradually recovered, and they still looked more likely to score than the visitors.

England won a few corners but there was little threat from those set pieces throughout the match.  More subs came on for Poland but still nothing from Southgate.  One Polish substitute Arkadiusz Milik came on and was booked in less than a minute.  Later on though he had a free header which he put tamely wide.  Then Mount gave Foden a chance with a good pass, but the youngster could not fine the power with his weaker right foot, and the goalkeeper easily saved.  It was a little worrying to find players in crossing positions looking up to find no England player in the box, something we need to work on.  As the match entered the last ten minutes there was still no signs of changes from the bench but on 84 minutes Mount shot as he cut in, won a corner for England.  This time, something did happen from the set piece.

Foden’s corner went very deep, too far it seemed, but Stones got round the back and headed the ball down and back into the danger area.  The ball bounced to Maguire and he lashed home a terrific shot from 12 yards.  All the players rushed to Stones who had certainly atoned for his earlier error.  Some say the goal came against the run of play, but I don’t agree, as England created more than Poland throughout.

Strangely, with just a few minutes left, Southgate then made three substitutions, with Reece James, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jesse Lingard coming on for Foden, Kane and Sterling.  Still, the game was won, and you can’t say fairer than that.  And talking of fair, in one daily newspaper, the score ratings for players gave Stones ‘4’.  What a ridiculous mark that was, obviously judged on that one blemish in an otherwise excellent match for the big defender.  England are now in pole position in the group, if you will pardon the pun.
     

Source Notes