STERLING BREAKS THE ICE
Iceland miss late penalty, both teams go down to 10 men but England are given a huge let off as...
WHEN England lost to Iceland at Euro 2016 in Nice’s Allianz Riviera stadium and plunged the nation into a debate about whether it was the worst and most humiliating defeat ever, Roy Hodgson’s players fell to the turf in despair.
Four years on, England confronted the side that has peopled their nightmares since then in the silence of the Laugardalsvollur stadium.
Against an Iceland team decimated by the withdrawal of most of its leading players, England dominated possession but, after spurning early chances, looked bereft of ideas about how to break the home side down. A game that started well for Gareth Southgate’s side began to degenerate into farce again when Kyle Walker was sent off with 20 minutes to go and Iceland scented another upset.
England were given a lifeline when they were awarded a lastminute penalty and Raheem Sterling calmly converted it. But they insisted on courting embarrassment again when they immediately conceded a penalty to Iceland as the game lurched into injury time. Only the nerves and the poor technique of Birkir Bjarnason, who lifted his kick over the bar, saved them from more mockery.
As disappointing evenings go, it may not have quite been up there with a night out on the town in Mykonos with Harry Maguire but it was still distinctly underwhelming.
This Nations League group match was England’s first game since their 4-0 victory over Kosovo in Pristina on November 17 last year, so a certain amount of rust was to be expected but this tepid, lacklustre 1-0 win was hardly the way to begin the build-up to next year’s European Championships.
All the excitement about a forward line of Jadon Sancho, Harry Kane and Sterling and a debut for Phil Foden melted away. None of them had the impact that Southgate would have hoped for. And even if he will not be as dismayed as England fans, he will hope for a vast improvement when they play Denmark in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
One of the ghosts of Euro 2016 was banished before the start when Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, who scored the winner against England, withdrew from the line-up after the warm-up with injury.
What took place in Nice still haunts the nightmares of England fans: the complacency going into the game, the way Wayne Rooney’s last goal for his country was wiped out by two quick replies from Ragnar Sigurdsson and Sigthorsson, the way that England froze, the way they trailed for 74 minutes and yet did not have the wherewithal to put Iceland under pressure.
In football terms, it was a national trauma. Former England captain Alan Shearer said: ‘That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from an England team. Ever. It was tactically inept. We were outfought, out-thought, out-battled and totally hopeless for 90 minutes.’
Those were the days of Kane on corners and of Joe Hart’s slide towards the twilight and of Daniel Sturridge edging towards the margins and of Rooney leaving the main stage. Hodgson announced his resignation 19 minutes after the final whistle and, unwilling to end his career on such a humiliation, reinvented himself as a fine Premier League manager at Crystal Palace.
The capacity of Laugardalsvollur is just under 10,000. Put that another way and it is about three per cent of this country’s population. And only a few more than the number of Iceland players who had pulled out of this game in the run-up, citing either injury, coronavirus concerns or club commitments.
So it was hardly surprising that the visitors dominated the first half completely. Kane ran on to a curling low cross from Sterling after six minutes and prodded it into the net at the back post. It should have stood but it was wrongly ruled out by a late, late linesman’s flag.
England stayed in control. Eric Dier and Joe Gomez hit searching diagonal passes for Sterling and Sancho to run in behind the defence. Only the final ball was lacking but it felt like a matter of time until England took the lead.
Amid all the excitement about the front line and the debut of Foden, it was the energetic authority of Declan Rice in front of the back four that caught the eye. When England did cede possession, it was often Rice who won it back.
He should have scored, too, but when Sancho laid a simple pass into his path on the edge of the six-yard box, he swung at the ball and missed.
England did their best to remain patient against the Iceland massed defence and Sterling danced through and played the ball wide to Sancho. He laid it straight into the path of Walker and the Manchester City defender drilled a fierce drive into the side-netting.
But when the breakthrough did not come, there was a sense that England were getting bored of their domination and inability to score.
Half-chances for Sterling and James Ward-Prowse came and went and the game went flat. Ten minutes before the interval, Iceland even manufactured a chance but Arnor Ingvi Traustason curled his free-kick just wide. England’s superiority in that first half was such that statistics showed Gomez, with 57, and Dier, with 53, completed more passes than the entire Iceland team, who managed 52.
But as the second half wore on, and they failed to score, frustration began to creep in. Too often, good approach work was spoiled by poor deliveries from wide areas and Iceland began to scent another upset.
That sense increased when Walker was sent off but Sterling appeared to have spared some of England’s blushes with his late penalty that sent keeper Hannes Halldorsson the wrong way.
Still England attempted to court embarrassment when they immediately conceded a penalty of their own but they were reprieved when Bjarnason lifted his spot-kick high over the bar.
‘It was definitely strange, the first game back,’ said match-winner Sterling, who insisted he was always confident he would tuck away his penalty.
‘We always knew it would be difficult but there is no better way to get your fitness than in matches.
‘It was tough but we got through it, we knew we had to challenge ourselves and find something deep within.’
He added on Sky Sports: ‘We didn’t expect the red card but it happened and we kept trying to play our football... we got the penalty in the end.
‘As soon as I got the ball I said “straight down the middle”, it is the 90th minute and I was sure the keeper wouldn’t stand straight down the middle so I was quite confident with it.’
ICELAND: Halldorsson, Hermannsson, Ingason, Arnason, Magnusson, Traustason (Hallfredsson 76), Bjarnason, Palsson, Porsteinsson (A Sigurdsson 66), Gudmundsson, Bodvarsson (Fridjonsson 90+1). Booked: Ingason. Sent off: Ingason.
ENGLAND: Pickford, Dier, Rice, Gomez, Trippier, Walker, Foden (Ings 68), Ward-Prowse, Sancho (AlexanderArnold 73), Sterling, Kane (Greenwood 78). Goals:
Sterling 90+1. Booked: Walker, Gomez. Sent off: Walker.
REFEREE: Srdjan Jovanovic