Maguire slams home late winner to the relief of erratic England
“Cry God for Harry, England and St George!” Except England almost fluffed their lines. Goals from the two Harrys – Kane and Maguire – claimed a precious victory over Poland and with it control of their World Cup qualifying group but if this was meant to be the rousing final audition before the Euros then it did not quite go to script.
Maybe international football is like that – just as Germany found out by losing at home to North Macedonia. Poland were without their best player, Robert Lewandowski, but are no push-overs. In fact this was only their third defeat in 26 qualifiers but, for England, after a thrilling opening period it became laboured.
To borrow a line from one of Gareth Southgate’s predecessors, Sven-goran Eriksson, it was a case of “first-half good; second-half not so good”. Except England got there in the end with John Stones finding a slice of redemption after his horrible mistake – the kind of lapse in concentration we all thought he had eradicated from his game but could be so costly this summer – gifted Poland their equaliser.
As time ran out, as England appeared to struggle, as Southgate resisted making substitutions, it was from a set-piece – their stock-intrade at the last World Cup – that they struck with Stones rising high, acrobatically and bravely beyond the far post to head Phil Foden’s corner back into Maguire’s path. The centre-half hammered the ball high on the half-volley and into the net with Southgate punching the air.
It meant England opened up a five-point lead over Poland in their group that even at this early stage appears commanding on the road to Qatar. But it is the route to the Euros that will concern Southgate the most at present and if he wanted to come out of this toughest of the three qualifiers in the past week with more answers than questions then he will have been left disappointed. Will it see a return to the back-three for the tournament? Hopefully not.
But while Foden, Mason Mount and Declan Rice all did much to promote their cause – and it must be remembered how young they are – the case for the defence was less clear. Even in goal Nick Pope did not really seize his chance and this has proven to be a good get-together for Jordan Pickford to miss.
And yet it looked so different as England swarmed around Poland. There was positivity from the start. They kept the ball, kept pushing and earned an early reward as Kane put them ahead from the penalty spot.
The goal owed everything to the pressing of Foden, Mount and Raheem Sterling, with the latter fed possession and running hard at the defence. Grzegorz Krychowiak tried to impede him and Michal Helik slid in recklessly just as Sterling appeared to have over-run the ball. As Poland protested that Sterling had dived, Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers pointed to the spot and Kane confidently chipped the ball into the centre of the goal as Wojciech Szczesny committed himself.
This was good; this was encouraging from England. The movement was exceptional, the 4-3-3 shape progressive, with Foden roaming across the front line and Mount taking up pockets of space. It was from one of those that he slid the ball through to Ben Chilwell. By the goal-line the full-back’s cross was met by Foden but maybe he was just not tall enough or maybe he overcompensated by jumping early. But either way he headed over.
There was purpose and imagination and Mount was again central to it as he picked out Sterling who cut in from the left and was clear on goal but delayed, unsure whether to shoot or cross for the unmarked Foden, with his pass easily blocked. Then Foden, with a deft lay-off, found Kane whose powerful drive was pushed away by Szczesny.
It was exciting. Maybe there was almost a low hum of “Football’s Coming Home”. England looked the real deal; they looked like challengers… and then half-time came. It was as if a switch had been flicked and maybe that was a sign of how far England still have to go, a reality check and especially with a young team still learning the art of gamemanagement, still learning what Southgate had termed how to be “savvy” like Portugal and France, the winners of the past two major tournaments.
The warning signs came quick and fast. Stones played the ball back to Pope and, under pressure from Krzysztof Piatek, the goalkeeper’s touch was not good but he was bundled over and won a free-kick. There was another, bigger let-off when Maguire attempted to clear a cross with the ball striking his outstretched arm. Had Fifa insisted on there being Var in these qualifiers it could well have been a penalty.
It felt sloppy. It felt like an alarming dip in concentration and so it was capped when Stones was far too casual on the edge of his own area with a heavy first touch allowing Jakub Moder to take the ball away from him with substitute Arkadiusz Milik returning it to the midfielder, who beat Pope with a powerful, rising cross-shot.
There was a whiff of panic. Suddenly this was a test for England and it took them time to re-set and steady themselves with Mount, noticeably, accepting the challenge and Foden snatching a shot after a fine first touch had afforded him time to take it on.
Still, to their credit, England continued to push and on balance deserved the victory with Maguire claiming it. The finish was dramatic even if the overall performance was far from perfect.
Poland (3-5-2) Szczesny 6; Helik 5 (Jozwiak 54, 6), Glik 6, Bednarek 7; Bereszynski 6, Zielinski 6 (Grosicki 86), Krychowiak 6, Moder 7, Rybus 5 (Reca 86); Piatek 6 (Augustyniakat 76), Swiderski 5 (Milik 45, 7). Subs Niemczycki (g), Fabianski (g), Kowalczyk, Dawidowicz, Kozlowski, Placheta, Szymanski. Booked Milik.