Captain Kane to rescue
Harry to rescue as Gareth’s Lions pull off a great escape
A HUNG parliament in London but no lynching in Glasgow for either side.
After a sensational finish, it was honours even as the old rivals traded late blows at Hampden Park.
Two brilliant free-kicks in the last three minutes by Celtic’s Leigh Griffiths appeared to have given Scotland an unlikely victory.
But in added time, skipper Harry Kane rescued England with a volley from Kyle Walker’s cross. Earlier, England substitute Alex OxladeChamberlain came off the bench to make a decisive impact. The Arsenal midfielder scored a superb solo goal as Gareth Southgate’s England e xt e nded t heir unbeaten run in World Cup and European qualifiers to 35 matches.
Eventually, it was still a disappointing result for England – but it could have been so much worse.
Scotland went into battle having failed to beat England at home for 32 years – but they came so close to ending that sequence.
And they were certainly fired up from the start, with skipper Scott Brown being shown a yellow card in only the third minute.
The Celtic midfielder was booked for a reckless challenge from behind on Tottenham’s Dele Alli.
Griffiths then produced the first shot of the match but England keeper Joe Hart saved comfortably.
Scotland’s aggressive start also brought them four early corners.
But apart from Chris Smalling slicing one of them over his own bar, England’s defence was not unduly troubled.
Southgate’s side eventually established a foothold in the match and created – and missed – the first chance of the game in the 18th minute.
A neat build-up led to Eric Dier chipping the ball forward to his Tottenham team-mate Kane.
But from a promising position the England skipper lifted his left-foot shot over the bar.
Kane then just failed to get on the end of an Adam Lallana cross after good play on the left by the Three Lions.
With England on top they were close to taking the lead in the 29th minute.
Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon raced out of his penalty area to head clear but the ball travelled only as far as Kane.
The Spurs striker immediately lobbed the stranded Gordon but Kieran Tierney was back to head clear from almost on the line.
Marcus Rashford, however, quickly latched on to the ball but the Manchester United starlet’s shot was deflected just wide.
England stepped up the pressure in the closing stages of the first half.
Lallana had a well-hit left-foot effort deflected into the side-netting when it looked at first as if it was going to be the opening goal.
Then Celtic keeper Gordon made a meal of turning over the bar a drive by West Brom midfielder Jake Livermore, who was harshly booked a minute later for a challenge on Robert Snodgrass.
Livermore went closer to scoring early in the second half after his persistence saw him regain possession and his left-foot shot was deflected on to the post by Andrew Robertson.
Livermore again won the ball back but first Smalling then Dier failed to convert his low cross.
Scotland looked hopefully for a penalty when Walker clumsily challenged Griffiths – but Italian referee Paolo Tagliavento instead warned the Celtic striker for diving.
The Scots had their best chance in the 58th minute when Griffiths set up Robertson, but he couldn’t hit the target with his left-foot effort. Those incidents gave the Scots hope and the Hampden roar went up a significant number of notches.
But it took a fine reaction save by Gordon to prevent England scoring when Kane met Ryan Bertrand’s cross from the left with a firm header.
England, though, finally broke through in the 71st minute.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had been on the pitch only six minutes as substitute for Rashford, cut in from the right and ended a fine run with a superb left-foot finish.
And the Scotland fans were even more upset when the England players celebrated enthusiastically in front of them.
The Ox certainly made a difference and another run and cross was headed over by Lallana when he should have done better. But three minutes from time Gary Cahill paid a heavy price for a foul on substitute Ryan Fraser when Griffiths brilliantly curled home the free-kick from 25 yards.
And incredibly, just three minutes later, Griffiths did it again, beating Hart’s despairing dive with another free-kick from a similar position to seemingly shatter England.
But there was still time for skipper Kane to rescue his side in a heart-stopping finish.
In the group’s other early- evening kick-off Slovenia beat Malta 2-0 to close the gap on England to three points.