Southgate can exploit left flank

THE bad news for England is that it’s raining goals in the Spain team, who have 12 in three. The good news is that the team’s defence provides a weakness to exploit.

Even a Wales side, who looked so sedentary on Thursday, managed to find a way to exploit it, when Sam Vokes stepped easily in front of Raul Albiol to score an elementary centre forward’s goal. On the available evidence in Cardiff, Napoli’s Albiol would simply not make it into Gareth Southgate’s England team.

Gerard Pique has gone, too, and though there is still that something of the night about Sergio Ramos which reveals how much winning with Spain still means to him, the 32-yearold looks mistake-prone.

Luis Enrique seems resolved not to play left-back Jordi Alba because of a dispute so the likely presence of Chelsea’s Marco Alonso on Monday provides Raheem Sterling with a genuinely exploitable flank.

Alonso has impressed going forward for club boss Maurizio Sarri but he is not a worldclass defender. If England can get on the ball, there could be opportunities. Spain, who had 70 per cent of possession against Wales, will make them few and far between. IAN HERBERT