100 NOT OUT
Cristiano Ronaldo became the first European to score 100 international goals in men’s football last night, before hitting his 101st with a brace in Portugal’s 2-0 win over Sweden
AS England toiled in Copenhagen last night, you couldn’t help but ponder what Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden were thinking back at home in Manchester.
The team they had left in disgrace just 24 hours prior were labouring, devoid of any invention or craft whatsoever.
How Gareth Southgate could have done with his two fledglings here. That should hurt Greenwood and Foden more than anything else.
Their team-mates were clearly in need of them, but neither was able to answer the call. They only have themselves to blame.
But the pair’s unavailability and the reasons behind it were neither here nor there for the England manager as he watched his side struggle to lay a glove on Denmark on a forgettable night.
Following the tumultuous events of the past fortnight, Southgate would have been relieved to turn his focus elsewhere for 90 minutes.
Last night’s clash would provide only temporary respite, of course. The repercussions of Greenwood and Foden’s clandestine meeting with two Icelandic women on Sunday will last long into the future for the England boss.
So, too, will the question marks over Harry Maguire’s integrity ahead of his retrial next year. Southgate has all that to look forward to. But that’s life as an England manager, and Southgate has faced enough crises during his tenure to know the drill.
Winning football matches will help diminish whatever anxieties he may suffer as he navigates the headaches that lie ahead.
Judging by this performance, Southgate can add it to his list of issues to deal with.
He took the opportunity to blood two new players with Kalvin Phillips of Leeds United and Conor Coady of Wolves handed England debuts from the start as part of a switch to a back three.
Coady benefited from the change as the centre-back made an accomplished start to life on the international stage. The fact this was his first time in an England senior squad made no odds to the Liverpudlian as he loudly set about organising his defence with authority.
He wasn’t all talk either — three missile-like long-range passes out to Trent Alexander-Arnold inside the first 25 minutes all set England away on attacks.
Phillips, in contrast, has played his entire career to date in the Championship and didn’t find the transition to international football straightforward.
His first attempted pass was wasteful. Soon after, he was dispossessed inside his own half as he tried to carry the ball away from his own area. But he wasn’t the only England player who struggled for rhythm.
Southgate’s men were largely comfortable, but Jadon Sancho’s scuffed effort from Kieran Trippier’s corner in the 11th minute was all they had to show from an insipid first half. Alexander-Arnold had threatening openings down the right. Raheem Sterling had his moments on the opposite flank.
But those flashes were too infrequent and when England were in a position to penetrate, the final pass was rushed or misjudged.
Southgate’s decision to deploy two holding central midfielders in Phillips and Declan Rice appeared to be stunting England’s creative flow — a problem they had faced in Iceland on Saturday, when they had to rely on Sterling’s late penalty to earn them victory.
Jordan Pickford’s save to deny Kasper Dolberg in the 38th minute — after Christian Eriksen had made his former Tottenham teammate Eric Dier look a fool — was the highlight of the first half.
Yet Southgate refused to alter his personnel or system at halftime. Blind faith? It appeared so.
Southgate’s first change arrived on the hour, Mason Mount replacing Sancho in a bid to try to add pizazz to the midfield.
Harry Kane’s back-post header from Trippier’s deep cross in the 69th minute followed by
Sterling’s long-range effort, that was turned behind by Kasper Schmeichel, at least provided some attacking punch.
But the fact that Sterling’s effort — which arrived in the 70th minute — was England’s first on target told its own story.
Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish replaced Phillips in the 76th minute for his England debut as Southgate searched for further inspiration.
Denmark could have won it in the 81st minute, however, Eriksen blazing over from close range after Yussuf Poulsen’s knock back.
Then Kane, who had been deprived of service all night, was denied an undeserved winner for England by Mathias Jorgensen’s brilliant goal-line clearance with virtually the last kick of the game.
Despite a fairly dispiriting performance, Southgate insisted that he had ‘learned a lot’ from the 90 minutes.
And he couldn’t resist a dig at the likes of Foden and Greenwood who have made his life so much more difficult in the build-up to these games with Iceland and the Danes.
‘We tried a new system which we will get better at, given everything we have had to deal with — ten pull-outs for various reasons,’ he said.
‘So we felt that we wanted to start with stability. We could have probably been a bit higher with an attacking threat in the first half but we were in control and, given the stage of the season the players are at, that was really important.
‘Second half, we started to accelerate the game with some of the changes, putting Mason into midfield made us more forwardthinking and Jack did the same.
‘Ainsley (Maitland-Niles) did really well, so I was very pleased with the players who made their debuts. I thought Conor Coady was excellent and Eric Dier has had two excellent games at centre-back for us, so the back three today was very solid.’
Denmark (4-3-3): Schmeichel; Wass, Jorgensen, Christensen, Skov; Norgaard (Hojbjerg 73), Eriksen, Delaney; Poulsen, Dolberg (Jensen 76), Braithwaite (Kjaer 82). Subs Not Used: Andersen, Ronnow, Cornelius, Dalsgaard, Maehle, Vestergaard, Christiansen, Lossl, Bruun Larsen. Booked: Braithwaite.
England (3-4-3): Pickford; Gomez, Coady, Dier; Alexander-Arnold (Maitland-Niles 87), Rice, Phillips (Grealish 76), Trippier; Sancho (Mount 60), Kane, Sterling. Subs
Not Used: Mings, Henderson, Abraham, Ings, Keane, Pope, Ward-Prowse.
Man of the match: Sterling