Kane is England saviour after Griffiths double
Scotland 2 Griffiths 87, 89 England 2 Oxlade-Chamberlain 70, Kane 90+3
Att: 52,000
These are the United Kingdom’s days of tumult and uncertainty, when it feels like just about anything could happen, even two free-kick goals from Leigh Griffiths within the space of three minutes that almost gave Scotland their first 21st-century victory over the country they cherish defeating.
If nothing else about British public life can be relied on, here at last was the certainty that the other national obsession can still serve up the kind of unpredictability that is thrilling and bewildering, rather than just bewildering. Scotland were on the brink of a beautiful moment in their battered international football history and then came a moment of truth, and the truth that was revealed was that Scotland are still not capable of closing the deal.
That was the equaliser from Harry Kane in the third minute of added time when the Hampden Park crowd thought that just possibly they might win this World Cup qualifier and score their first victory over England at this ground since 1985. They were denied by a moment of classically predatory Kane, a man who had done little of note until he arrived unmarked at the far post to guide in a cross.
For Scotland it was torture and for England it meant something profound, Gareth Southgate said, even coming against a nation they had beaten eight times in their previous 11 meetings. Southgate has spent hours thinking about how he might prevent England going through the kind of paralysis by fear that they encountered last summer in adversity against Iceland and in this instance of disaster avoided, he felt that he saw progress.
A “huge moment for the team” was how Southgate described it and perhaps all those hours putting up tents and plunging into murky water in Devon last week have given his boys greater staying power. They were mediocre for long periods here, and when substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave them the lead in the 70th minute they still felt like a team undercooked, three weeks from the end of the season and ready for their holidays.
What followed was remarkable, a reminder – as if any were needed after Euro 2016 – of what a modestly talented team can do on a surge of pride. Gordon Strachan described Griffiths’s two goals as “Scotland’s best ever free-kick and Scotland’s second best ever freekick” and he might well be right. In the 87th and 89th minutes, the Celtic striker twice beat Joe Hart from distance, an epic kind of shoot-out that felt astonishing after the first and just surreal after the second.
Southgate was unwilling to judge Hart’s part in all this but he did feel a bit like the Test batsman who just keeps getting out to the same delivery.
The first was whipped past his left hand, the second past his right and yet on both occasions neither was dispatched with pinpoint accuracy into the corner of the goal. There was something that felt wrong about Hart’s attempts to save, perhaps the positioning itself, that made you wonder if another goalkeeper would have got there.
For Griffiths they were a couple of moments that will live with him his whole life. “Wonderful character… strange but wonderful” was how Stra- chan later described the player, a good epithet for the whole afternoon.
Strachan, emotionally exhausted, spoke later with some awe about the England team’s “strength, power and speed” and how much of a test it had been for his players, drawn from more humble club sides, to compete. He was genuine in his regard for their effort, especially Griffiths who led the pressing game Scotland employed at the start of the match and still had the energy to deliver those two great strikes right at the death.
He was less willing to say what it means for Scotland’s hopes of making it to the World Cup finals next summer, declaring himself incapable of anymore coherency. They are three points off Slovenia in second place, and one off Slovakia in third, with both left to play in their remaining four games and the task remains pretty steep.
For Southgate the most obvious lesson was the lack of a playmaker in midfield. Jake Livermore had a decent game and was unfortunate to concede the second of Griffiths’s two free-kicks. Eric Dier went close with a free-kick himself before Kane’s equaliser. Neither of them pass the ball well enough for England to build attacks quickly against opposition like Scotland who also sat very deep for long periods.
Scotland hustled and disrupted for the first 15 minutes and Scott Brown needed just three minutes to pick up a booking, crashing into Dele Alli.
The young Celtic full-back Kieran Tierney did a good job to frustrate Marcus Rashford on the right wing. He later made way for Oxlade-Chamberlain. Kane missed his best chance of the first half, a ball over the top from Dier.
It was a strange game for Craig Gordon, who, like Hart, seemed to get a lot wrong. In the first half he strayed out of his area and had to head a ball clear that went straight to Kane whose well placed shot was cleared off the line by Tierney.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was lively and for his goal he picked the ball up wide on the right, cut in past Brown with the help of a ricochet and then eluded Tierney before beating Gordon with a shot he should have saved.
Scotland left it late but Griffiths took his first chance when Gary Cahill’s foul gave him a free-kick slightly to the right. Hart seemed to leave too much space to his own left and the Celtic man put the ball on that side, with Hampden erupting. Three minutes later, came the second when Livermore was penalised. Hart made sure to be more central this time. Griffiths beat him on his right.
It was a remarkable end, and amid the Scottish celebrations, Southgate called for Jermain Defoe. It was Raheem Sterling, another substitute, who crossed for the equaliser after Gordon had saved well from Dier’s free-kick. Kane, who had barely had a chance all game, appeared at the back post to get the draw which Southgate was clear was every bit as important as that lost victory would have been to Scotland.